Do Hell and Sea Mix?
by Veerayne
Summary: Nico has a horrible problem.  His horrible problem is most commonly known as Percy.  He has fallen for the big oblivious doof and doesn't know how to control his emotions.  How will he ever get Percy to like him as more than a friend?  N/P or P/N  I dont really care about the order of names, so if you think it has anything to do with top or bottom...it doesnt.
1. Chapter 1

Nico's POV

My name is Nico di Angelo. I am sixteen years old. My sister Bianca died when I was eleven. It was Percy's fault. I vowed revenge from the moment I discovered her death.

The crush I have on Percy didn't start right when I met him. No, when I met him I trusted him but was too young to actually feel anything for him. It was when Bianca died that I stopped trusting him and started to plot my revenge on him. Instead of taking the obvious route and straight up lunging for his throat, I decided to, as the saying goes, to "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". Yep, that's right, I decided to become friends with him. Percy was easy to befriend, all I had to do was pretend that I had forgiven him and he fell straight into my trap. However, my brilliant plan backfired…big time. The more I hung out with Percy, the more I saw how funny and kind he was. I just couldn't believe this stupid person could make me feel so helpless and alone. I, Nico di Angelo, am falling for Perseus Jackson- son of Poseidon and death of my sister.

Today is Valentine's Day and I have nothing better to do than sit in my cabin watching demigods walk by like the total creeper I am… you know creeper in a dark mysterious and sexy way. I stared at those flashing green eyes out the window of my eerie black room. These are the eyes that haunt my every waking moment. The more I see them, the more I want to confront him. I want to yell at him for being so oblivious, I want to cry in his arms and have him tell me it's going to be okay.

Suddenly there's a knock at my cabin door. Ugh, who could this possibly be? The only two people that visit me are Percy and Rachel Dare, my best friend. I decide to just ignore it. I am not in the mood to talk to anyone right now on my least favorite and most depressing holiday. Being the son of Hades you would kind of expect that I don't like Valentine's Day, but this is different, its okay when you not head over heals for your straight friend who is currently dating Athena's daughter, Annabeth.

The mystery person at the door apparently was not taking no as an answer because they just kept on pounding even harder when I didn't respond. I couldn't take the obnoxious sound anymore so I have to pull myself out of my bed and unlock the door. I swing the door open and am bombarded with a bear hug from Rachel.

"Rach, get off of me… you're suffocating me"

"Sorry, I am just so happy you're here, I thought you were in the Underworld considering what day it is." She looked at me in concern.

"Don't give me that look. I'm not a dying puppy. Just because you happen to know that I like a certain person that at the moment is snogging a girl's face off does not give you the right to look at me like I am so weak and innocent." She glared at that then brushed it aside and started on a new topic.

"Nico you're too thin, it's not healthy. Come with me and let's go to dinner. Chiron's not going to like it if you're late again, and this time you better eat something. So help me gods, if you don't fill out those sunken cheeks, I'm going to blend up all the ingredients from McDonalds and force them down your throat."

"Ha, and where do you suppose you're gonna find a McDonalds out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"I have my ways." She said in that sneaky voice of hers that always made me feel like there was something mysterious about her that I didn't know. But that is impossible because we tell each other virtually everything… well except those girly things like when her time of the month is or if she byes a new bra or something along those lines. I get along just fine not knowing those disturbing and unnecessary details.

She got up and held her hand out to help me up. We stood up and walked over to the long tables filled with demigods. Since Rachel is still undetermined she sits with me at the Hades table. Thank goodness too, because I don't think I could have taken another lonely meal at the camp before Rachel showed up. I pick up my plate piled high with ribs and fried bananas and put some of it into the huge purple bonfire, then I prayed my thanks to my dad. And hey, if Percy can eat blue food, then why can't I have my weird food habits? When he walks by with his blue meal nobody so much as looks at him, but when I walk by with bananas and ribs suddenly I'm freak that everybody whispers about! Why the heck does Percy have to be so freaking loveable?

"Nico, hey Nico! Is there anybody in that tiny noggin of yours?" Rachel had started to talk earlier about that preppy all girls' school that she was being forced to attend but I had spaced out a couple of minutes ago and my focus now lies on Percy instead. She was waving her hand in front of my eyes at the moment. Suddenly I snapped out of my pleasant daydream. Not because of Rachel's hands, but because of the girl that was suddenly blocking my view of Percy with a slobbery kiss on his mouth. Public displays of affection at the dinner table were prohibited but for Percy, Chiron usually just ignored the infraction. It was probably because of Percy and Annabeth's "perfect couple" reputation. If it was me instead of Annabeth, who knows what kind of bad attention we would bring? I scowled at the wise girl.

"Ugh, when is this camp ever going to stop looking like a teeny bop movie? I swear its like were in High School Musical or something. Er…not that I've ever seen that before."

"Wow, pay attention to Seaweed Brain more than your best friend, that's hurtful." Rachel says with a playful edge to her voice.

"I'm sorry Rach, it's just that its Valentines Day and I have to sit here and watch Percy getting all slobbery with Annabeth.

Just then Percy stopped kissing Annabeth and walked over to my table. My gaze brushed over his built abs under his tight v-neck shirt and his beautiful black silky hair falling slightly in his eyes. I had to resist the urge to bring my hand up to his face to brush the hair out of his eyes.

"Hey Nico."

"H-hey Percy, what's up?

"Do you want to spar with me tomorrow? I've been so busy with Annabeth lately that I've been neglecting my daily activities."

"And me." I muttered hoping he didn't hear me.

"Yeah sorry, I gotta work on this friend/girlfriend prioritizing thing? So are you in?"

"Sure. What time?"

"I was thinking around 5:30 am."

"Are you kidding me? Are you trying to kill me? You know I'm not a morning person!"

"Exactly, better chance of me beating you." He said then laughed and nudged my shoulder playfully. I blushed but thankfully he had turned towards Rachel and hadn't seen it.

"Hi Rachel, would you like to come tomorrow morning with us to fight?"

Rachel looked over at me and saw the sullen look that had suddenly brushed my features. "Um…no thanks. I have plans tomorrow morning with Clarisse."

"Oh I'm sorry. All my sympathy goes out to you."

Rachel glared at Percy. "She is not that bad! You two are just so similar in demeanor that it is impossible for you guys to get along."

Percy rolled his eyes then turned back towards me and said, "See ya then Neeks."

This time I couldn't hide the blush that covered my cheeks.

"Don't call me that!" I growled getting annoyed of the effect that his nickname was having on me.

"Ah, is Nico_lette_ gonna cry?" He said in a mocking but totally playful way.

I couldn't let him get away with this. Tomorrow I would be up bright and early to avenge myself. There is no way he is going to beat me again due to my lack of focus on fighting and me increase of focus on his sweat-slicked abs. Man, why couldn't that guy just wear a shirt? Is that too much to ask for?

"You're gonna pay for that comment Jackson."

"You wish di Angelo." The way he said my last name made me shiver slightly.

"Break it up you two." Rachel said trying to keep a straight face. "We wouldn't want either of you guys to break a nail or something tragic like that.

With that Percy turned and left back to his spot next to Annabeth.

…OoO…

I turned quickly on my heel to avoid the fast swipe of Percy's blade. He seemed to be off balance for a half a second. That half a second was long enough for me to slam the hilt of my stygian iron sword onto his back. His back arched and he fell to the ground on his knees. I brought my sword to his neck and forced him to surrender.

"Alright, alright you got me."

I smirked in triumph, though I was a little worried that I had hurt him despite the fact that Percy was anything but weak.

"Are you okay? I did hit you probably a little harder than necessary."

"Yeah I'm fine, thank you for being so concerned though." He said with a small smile on his lips. "I don't know what happened to you Nico."

"Elaborate please." His random statement confused me.

"Well I used to think you hated me. Then I thought you were just using me. Now you seem genuinely concerned for me. Why is that? Not why are you concerned, 'cause I know we are friends now, but what made you change your mind about hating me?"

I had no answer for that. All I could do was stare at his wonderfully built biceps and hope to gods he didn't realize the drool on the corners of my mouth.

"Ummmmm… people change Percy. I just always blamed you for what happened to Bianca, but now that I'm older I realize it was her choice."

"Well I'm glad you don't blame me anymore because I don't know what I would do without a best friend like you. And dude, about all the time I've been spending with Annabeth, I'm sorry. It's just that whenever I'm around her I get that feeling like everything's going to be okay, you know what I mean?"

I nodded subconsciously. I know exactly what he means. I get that feeling every time I'm around him. This comment, though I understood and connected it, made me feel a little depressed. But nothing like the next thing he said.

"So, I have to ask you something. It's kind of embarrassing though."

"Anything, what's up?"

"Well it's just that lately when Annabeth and I are making out I get the feeling that she wants to do a little more than just that." _Ugh! _"But I don't think I'm ready for _that_ yet. What should I do?"

I couldn't take this anymore. I got up and ran out of the arena. I heard Percy yelling after me but just ignored him and continued to my cabin. How is he so oblivious? I practically transform into a blushing freak whenever he is around. Maybe he does know and just doesn't care enough or doesn't have the decency to call our friendship off before I get even more attached to him. But that didn't seem likely considering just about every girl in camp is drooling over him and he doesn't even notice them.

When I got to my cabin Percy had finally stopped chasing me. I decided my cabin was too stuffy at the moment and I needed fresh air so I turned around and jogged to the beach. The beach was surprisingly the one place where I could actually think clearly. As far as I could tell I am the only one who has ever found this place. I come here whenever I'm just fed up with being one of those prissy pathetic fan girls that are always chasing after Percy. I might not show it all the time because I'm his best friend after all but I always feel like it.

Being Percy's best friend (guy best friend… Rachel is my girl best friend) can have its ups and downs. For one thing, he is always nice and good natured towards me when most of the other campers ignore me and give me weird looks, but the downside is that I have to force myself to behave and not jump him every time he walks around in those stupid boxers that he is obsessed with. I swear, if he was allowed to go everywhere with those things on he would.

Usually when I'm here to vent, I bring my blank song sheets and guitar with me, but I left them in the cabin this time. I was so caught up in all the drama that I totally forgot to bring them. Nobody, not even Rachel or Percy no that I sing and write songs on my free time. I'd never tell anybody about my secret hobby because A) it might be seen as a weakness to the other campers (especially those who feared me, the "Ghost Prince") and B) although ill never straight up admit it, I am a very shy person.

So my music supplies ill just have to make due with singing a song from my favorite band.

The words are coming I feel terrible  
>Is it typical for us to act like this<br>Am I just another scene  
>From a movie that you've seen 100 times<br>Cause baby you weren't the first or the last or the worst  
>And I've got to fill the blanks in the past with a verse<br>And we could sit around and cry but frankly you're not worth it anymore

So say hello to all the boys at the top of this table that you're under  
>Lipstick lullabies<br>This is sorry for the last time  
>And baby I understand that you're making new friends<br>This is how you get by  
>The moral this time is<br>Girls make boys cry

The words died on my lips as soon as I heard a rustle from behind me. I swung around and called on my skeleton warriors just in case I needed back up against a monster. I know there aren't usually any monsters in the campgrounds, but hey, it's happened before. Behind me there was a dense forest so I couldn't really see anything from where I was. I cautiously called my warriors forward and stepped quietly and carefully into the thick greenery. I heard the rustling again except this time it was further away. I started to run towards the noise and came to a sudden stop when I reached a wide clearing.

I forgot all about why I was here in the first place due to the state of the open space around me. It consisted of one large tree in the middle of it with a thing that resembled a tree house but was clearly much more complex, as if somebody from the Hephaestus cabin had built it. There was a spiral metal staircase wrapping around the tree up to the base of the tree house and the tree house itself seemed to be metal also. There was even a chimney coming out of the roof. Smoke was coming from it. Whoever was spying on me must have been here. I decided to take a look around in the mysterious tree house.

I stepped cautiously up the surprisingly sturdy staircase and pulled on the door. It was open; no surprise there considering whoever was there probably had to make a quick getaway. My breath hitched as I peered slowly around the door. The floor was built with what appeared to be medium sized marble slabs. But that is not what surprised me, it was the mass amount of sketches on the walls that surprised me, especially since the majority of them were of me. Some were of Annabeth and the rest were either ocean scenes or creepy monsters. If there hadn't been so many pictures of me I would have thought that this was Percy's hide out because of the ocean scenes and Annabeths hanging all over the walls. That confused me the most; nobody at camp besides Percy, Rachel and sometimes Annabeth even talked to me much less liked me.

I looked at some of the drawings of me. Whoever drew these certainly was a fantastic artist, but gave me way too much credit because I'm almost positive I don't look as good as the model-like figure in the picture. There were sketches of me battling it out with Percy (which was one of the only pictures with Percy in it, and the person who drew him didn't give him nearly enough justice), there were also sketches of me eating my weird lunch at the pavilion. The scariest sketches though, were the ones where I was sleeping. I mean, the other sketches were of things that I do on a regular basis _in public_, but the only way the artist could have drawn me sleeping is if they had come into my _locked_ cabin in the middle of the night. What in the name of Hades was going on here?

I walked over to the small beanbag in the corner and sat down on it suddenly feeling really drowsy. I sighed heavily thinking that I would have to leave soon before anyone noticed I had been gone so long. I decided I would come back again soon. I took one last look around the room when something caught my eye and I froze. My body stiffened and my face took on something resembling a frown that you would think Hades himself wore. There on the wall full of sketches was a section devoted to himself playing the guitar and singing… nobody, and I mean NOBODY was supposed to know about that! I suppose I shouldn't have been so surprised considering I had been interrupted by the mystery artist when I was doing the exact same thing that I was doing in the sketches, but this was just too much. Not only did this person know pretty much everything about me, he also knew about the one place that was purely him, the one place that set him apart from all the other campers was now sabotaged.

I stormed out of the tree house as fast as I could and ran through the forest in a blur. As I was approaching the camp I ran into a very disheveled Percy. And even though I was the smaller one, he was the one that went crashing to the ground. Sometimes I didn't even know my own strength.

"Crap. I'm sorry Percy." I mumbled. I held out my hand to help him up. He grabbed it and heaved himself up. When he was standing though, he didn't let go of my hand. My heart jumped inside my chest. I tried to pull away from his grasp but his hand just seemed to tighten around my wrist.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me why in the hell you ran away. Am I really that offensive to look at?" He said with a hint of a smile on his lips.

"Geez, Percy, let go of me you're cutting off my circulation." His vice grip on my wrist loosened a bit, but he didn't let go of me.

"Look," I said, "I'm just not comfortable talking to you about that stuff." At least part of that was true; he wouldn't mind talking about it as long as it wasn't about _Annabeth_ and Percy.

He had a small smile on his face suddenly. I could feel my face growing extremely red.

"You could have just told me you weren't comfortable with that sort of conversation instead of running away like that." He smirked at me. "I sometimes forget that not everybody gets the birds and the bees talk from their parents, especially for someone who lived back when sex was unacceptable before marriage."

"Gods Nico, you're old!" He said with a smile on his face.

"I'm sixteen years old Percy; I'm not old. Besides you're like seventeen and a half, that's a year older than me."

"But I wasn't born in the early nineteen hundreds, I was born in the_ late_ nineteen hundreds. That's a huge age difference. You should be like over a hundred by now." He said with a short laugh.

"If you're done making fun of me, can I go?"

"No, you distracted me with your grandpa-age. Back to the topic at hand, I'm sorry for bombarding you with that uncomfortable conversation. I just needed someone to talk to and since you're kinda my best friend and all I thought you were the best person to have that sort of talk with. I didn't even realize the effects it would have on you."

"Don't apologize Percy, I'm just not in a very good place right now and I was being a grouch. I should have been there for you." I said, feeling ashamed of the way I handled the situation.

"Now you may leave." He said and let go of my wrist. The loss of the warmth of his hand gave me a weird feeling of loss but I pushed it aside and turned to walk to my cabin. I decided not to tell Percy about the tree house I had come across. If I had I would probably have to explain why I was in the forest in the first place and I just wasn't willing to let him have that kind of information about the one private thing in my life.


	2. Chapter 2

**I just want to thank you all very much for reading and reviewing my fanfic. It has meant a lot to me that you would take the time to respond and evaluate my story and give me advice to improve it. Also this fanfic will most likely be more than 7 chapters for those of you who like to read multiple chapter fics. I might procrastinate a little so just PM me if I forget to update for a while…I'm very sorry, but it seems as if I am always busy. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

"Percy, stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?" he asked innocently.

"Youre pouting."

"No I'm not."

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Enough! Fine you win. Come in."

"See was that so hard?" He came in and looked around my messy cabin. It was dark and gloomy and a total pigsty just the way I like it. "Now I'm just plain sad, I thought you said you were busy. It looks as if you were just listening to music and lying in bed. Am I really that boring? 'Cause I'll leave if you honestly don't want me here; next time though, just tell me you don't want to see me. Don't make up some lame excuse."

For a second I thought he was just messing with me until I looked up into his eyes and saw real hurt in them. What? He must know that I think he is the least boring person around! I mean come on, all I ever do is hang out with him. The only reason I had lied to him was because I was feeling especially…how should I put this?...horny…yeah I was feeling especially horny today and I'm almost positive that inviting Percy in my room while he flaunts around in his boxers would not help my problem.

"No. It's not that. I'm just not feeling very well. I didn't want you to worry." I said hoping he didn't see right through my lie.

He looked down at me, and a soft smile graced his features that left me breathless. I struggled to get my emotions together.

"How can I help, chicken noodle soup, extra pillows, entertainment?"

"No thank you. You go ahead and have fun with Annabeth. I know you don't want to be here to take care of me."

His face fell a little bit as he said, "She went to Olympus to make measurements for the new architecture plans."

"Oh, so that's why you're here." I said, my voice sounding angrier than I had intended. Why did I even believe in the first place that he was here because I was his first choice to hang out with? Of course I wasn't.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," I said while biting back angry words. "I didn't mean anything by it."

He must have known I was lying because he didn't let it go.

"I've known you long enough to know when you're lying Neeks. Spill it."

The next thing I did I was not very proud of but it needed to be done. Percy was on the ground and I was on top of him in a matter of seconds. Normally this compromising position would have made me very happy, but now was not a time to mess with me. I tackled Percy to the ground and he hit the ground so hard that I could have sworn I heard something crack.

"I thought I told you not to call me that!" I yelled with my hands forcing his arms to the ground right beside his head.

"You don't seem very sick to me."

That's what he said! Really? I tackle him to the ground with a look that death would be afraid of and he said _that_! Wow, he wasn't scared of me at all. If I had done that to any other kid in camp they probably would have peed their pants.

I decided to humor him so I coughed in his face. Then I stood up and opened the door for him to leave.

"Gross. Look I was just kidding. I'm sorry for calling you Neeks, it just fits you so well."

"Now get out" I said with a fierce glint in my eyes.

"But I want to take care of you." He whined.

Gods, why did that have to sound so hot coming from him? I felt the blood rushing to a place that was very, _very_ inconvenient at the moment.

"Percy, you need to leave…now." I said through my clenched teeth. My situation was not getting any better and I would have to turn around in a soon if he didn't leave. Thankfully he turned slowly and walked out of my small cabin. His confused and sad face made me all the more depressed as he left, but I couldn't do anything about that for the moment. I closed the door quickly and immediately jumped into the shower and turned the water temperature way down to cool down certain annoying parts of my body.

Gosh, girls complain about having it bad with their periods, but at least they don't have to worry about body parts that indicate whenever they get turned on.

When I had finally cooled off I got out and wrapped the towel around my waist. I shook my hair out and stared at my reflection in the mirror. Ugh, I was skinny and pale. Also, haircuts for me are very rare so my hair was getting really long; it was almost down to my shoulders by now. I ate and I ate but I still couldn't get any bigger. I barely even have any chest hair which is somewhat embarrassing when it comes to football games that I sometimes get sucked into. We have to play shirts and skins all of the time and most of the time I get unluckily chosen to be on the skins team. I wished I could be more like Percy or Grover who had muscular builds and were over six feet. I was barely over five foot nine inches. Pretty much every guy in camp was towering over me.

I sighed loudly at my reflection and then walked over to my dresser. I pulled out my underwear and a black, V-neck, long-sleeve shirt. I pulled my towel off of my waist and sighed again as I saw yet again another disappointing feature of my body. Then I pulled out my black skinny jeans and set them down on my bed as I sat went to put on my underwear.

The front door swung open and in walked none other than Percy Jackson himself. I stood there paralyzed for a second before I gathered myself and ran for the bed and quickly pulled the blanket in front of me.

"What the hell Percy! Don't you ever knock?" I sat there awkwardly as he scrutinized me beneath that smirk of his.

"Sorry, I didn't even think about it." He said. "Relax Nicky, its nothing I haven't seen before."

"Maybe you see that sort of stuff all the time but I have a strict policy of trying not to see my friends naked." Although, if it had been Percy, I probably wouldn't have been complaining.

"Ha," Percy laughed, "Nico you're hilarious."

"I'm not seeing the humor in this situation." I said not hiding the dryness in my voice.

"Oh, come on. Lighten up." He said with an easiness that made me slightly envious of his inability to feel insecure.

"What do you want Percy? I thought I told you to leave like ten minutes ago. Miss me already?" I said with a smirk hoping that it game me back a little bit of the confidence that I was famous for.

"Seriously I'm starting to get really offended. I thought we were besties?"

"We are, but that doesn't mean you can just waltz in- wait, did you just say besties?" I asked as I started to shake uncontrollably with laughter.

He stared at me as if I had gone insane.

"Wh-what are- are you? Four?" I said between fits of laughter.

"Whatever." He said as a blush spread across his face.

"Oh my gods! Are you blushing? Since when did that start happening?"

"Shut up, I'm not blushing. Gosh whenever I'm around you I feel so stupid. Inferior, you know?"

"Your body makes up for your stupidity." I said with a quick laugh. "Besides I'd rather look like you than be smart and witty as I already am. Hell, I'm barely past a hundred and thirty pounds."

"You look fine Nico, you just need to eat more."

"I eat like a pig…and still I don't get any bigger. Anyways, as fun as this is, which it isn't, can you please go so I don't have to burn your eyes with my horrid body?"

"Gods, give yourself more credit. You beat me today when we were sparing and that take a lot of muscle."

"Wow dude, you are incredibly conceited."

"And you are incredibly insecure."

"Bye Percy. Stop procrastinating."

"Okay, okay I'm going." He turned and trudged to the door.

"Hold on a second." He turned back around with a hopeful look on his face. "You never told me why you barged in like that."

"I thought I left something in here. Have you seen my favorite boxers?" he looked around the room with a distressed look on his face.

"I'll be happy if you never find those stupid things," I said, "You feel the need to bless all of us with wearing them around like they're going out of style. I mean seriously can't you find some actual clothes to become attached to?"

"Boxers are more comfortable than clothes." He said simply and walked out after thoroughly searching my room for his boxers.

2 days…OoO… later

I headed out towards the woods right before our scheduled game of capture the flag. I looked around for one of my best friends and was surprised to find both of them talking among themselves near the edge of the crowd. I walked towards them and poked Rachel in the side which made her squeal and squirm.

"Nico!" She laughed and shoved me away. "Why do you always do that? I told you I'm really ticklish and who knows what I'll do one of these days? I'll probably punch you in the face…at least you'd learn your lesson." She said in a thoughtful voice.

"Don't even think about." I said in a warning tone.

"Make me." She said and stuck her tongue at me in a way that surprisingly she could pull off without looking like a three year old.

Throughout our little encounter Percy just stood there slightly awkward. He kept his eyes trained on the ground, which I thought was particularly odd considering Percy was just about the least socially awkward person I knew.

"Hey Perce." I said.

"Why do you get to call me Perce when I am forbidden to call you Neeks? How is that fair?" I laughed at his gloomy remark.

"A simple 'hi' would have sufficed."

"Gods you two are like a bickering married couple, I swear. Is there ever a time when you guys aren't arguing about some stupid thing or another?" Rachel said. She received two heated glares as she spoke her teasing words.

"Cool your pants, guys, I was just joking." She said with the shake of her head. "Gosh, nobody can take a joke these days!"

Just then Chiron started to talk, "You all know the rules, no killing or maiming, but other than that…win. The teams will be Athena, Poseidon, and Hermes on team blue, and Ares, Aphrodite, and Hades on team red. Split up into your groups and discuss your strategy for five minutes before we begin. When I blow the horn you may begin."

I looked at Percy longingly…I really wanted to be on his team. Usually I was on his team but lately Chiron had been getting complaints about two of the sons of the Big Three being on the same time. The logic to the complaint was flattering, but at the same time very disappointing simply because I would have less time to spend with Percy during my already very busy schedule.

"Ah man. I was hoping to spend a little time with my Nicky." Percy said after the teams were announced. "Also I wouldn't have to worry about being eaten alive by dead zombies if you were on my team."

His compliments made me blush and I even forgot to do/say anything about his irritating knick names that always made my stomach flutter. His comment left me speechless, especially the part where he said '_my_ Nicky'. It sounded possessive as if we were dating or something.

He looked as if he was about say something important but was silenced as he got pulled away by one of his teammates so that they could start on their game plans.

I wondered for a few seconds what he could have possibly have said but my thoughts were cut short as my own team members impatiently called for me to gather in the forming huddle.

As soon as I received my instructions to guard the flag (which was disappointing to see that I wasn't needed in the real action) the horn blew loudly from across the clearing…

**Thank you for reading this. I know this is a cliff-hanger but bear with me it, will get more interesting. Please give me your advice and don't hesitate to call me out on any mistakes I have made. Sorry if I don't update super long chapters…I find those very difficult to write so this story will most likely be composed of lots of chapters that are about two thousand to four thousand words long. See ya next chapter. **


	3. Chapter 3

I ran to our flag which stood at least two hundred yards from the clearing. Pushing away my thoughts of disappointment of my lousy position, I focused intently on the space around the flag so that I would clearly see any intruders. I could hear chaos erupt from near the clearance in which I had just come from. Jealousy pulsed through my veins as I imagined all the awesome fighting I could be doing if my team hadn't decided that I should be the one to guard the stupid flag. This was unfamiliar territory for me because I was usually in the front line of offense, being a child of one of the Big Three and all.

We had a pretty good team so I wasn't really worried about anybody showing up with the flag just yet so I decided to try and fix some of the wording for the new song that I had just wrote. I had the melody down perfect, but the words were just not matching with the tune as much as I would have liked them to.

I'm falling down through the sky

I reach my hands up

Just to try and get by

Though if I try my hardest

The ends will fall apart

So I take breath

And I shake it off

Yeah I just take a breath

And I will try to shake it off

The words felt a little too repetitive, like I was having trouble expressing what my emotions felt like clearly. I tried toying with the lyrics earlier but annoyingly enough, Percy was trying to take up all the space in my ADHD mind. My thoughts were clear now though, so I went to work fixing the verses.

I'm falling down through the sky

I reach my hands up

Just to try and _stay alive_

Though if I try _too hard _

_My mind just falls_ apart

Those were all the revisions I could come up with before I heard something move not too far away. I figured my best defense was to call up my dead warriors, but they would be expecting that. Instead I made the ground go hollow around me and the flag so that anyone who came near would fall into a fairly deep hole. I just stood there and looked vulnerable so I would hopefully lure campers from the other team into my trap. If my first defense didn't hold up I would have my sword by my side and zombies at my beck and call. Finally after several minutes somebody stepped out of the shadows.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." I said.

"Well hello Neeks, we meet again."

I grit my teeth as he said this because I knew it was just a way for him to make the first move. He was trying to provoke me and make me lunge at him the way I did the other day when he called me that. I stood my ground and squared my shoulders.

"You're an idiot Percy." I glared, though my voice didn't sound as deadly as I intended it to.

"But you know you love me." He said in a playful tone.

"Are we just gonna stand here and chat or is there a reason that you came here?"

"You know, I don't get why they positioned you here." He said. "I'm pretty sure you are the best they've got."

I blushed a little at his compliment.

"I would rather not talk about this. It's rather embarrassing for anyone just to stand here and be the flag- guard."

"Everybody knows you're the best offensive fighter. Maybe they just knew that I was gonna make it over to the flag and that the only one that could stop me was you." He said with a smirk on his face.

"Getting a little cocky there, are we?" I retaliated. "By the way, you suck at comforting people."

"Who said I was trying to comfort you." He said and suddenly put on a look of hard concentration.

Just then a bunch of tiny little raindrops dropped straight down on me. I know what you're thinking, raindrops- how could that possibly do anything. The thing was is that the drops were coming at a speed of about one hundred miles per hour. If you've ever felt water hitting you at that speed you would know why I screamed and hit the ground as I was pelted with droplets. Percy started to run towards the flag, but thankfully my trap stopped him, if only for a minute. It was just long enough for me to gather my strength and grab my sword which had fallen to the ground when I fell.

I ran over to the large ditch that Percy had fallen into and peered cautiously over the edge. I didn't dare summon my warriors just yet in fear of draining all of my energy. If it came down to it, the dead warriors would be my very last resort.

I could see Percy bending the water to lift himself out of the ditch. What the heck, where did all of this water keep coming from? Did he just make it magically appear or something? When he got close to the top of the hole I slashed at him with my sword and it clinked off of his armor harmlessly. He was at his utmost disadvantage at the moment due to his severe concentration on controlling the mysterious water. With this in mind I tried to disarm him so that he would be easier to defeat when he landed on the ground beside the hole. My attempts weren't good enough because the next thing I knew he was fighting back with just as much force and with his feet on the ground. Percy's gaze traveled towards the flag for a few brief moments which gave me the chance to knock Riptide out of his hands. He stared at me with wide eyes and started to pelt me with water once more though they came slower because of how draining it was for Percy to use his powers. At the last moment though, he pivoted around me and ran for the flag. I couldn't let him get to the flag, if I had, I would have never lived it down so I gathered all the strength I had left and dove at him. We toppled to the ground. I ended up on top of him. I stared into those beautiful sea-green eyes and my heart stopped for a second. I stiffened and felt my face go a deep shade of red.

My mind had gone hazy with the close proximity of our positions. As fast as it had happened it was over; Percy swung me off of him and ran to the flag but stopped once he heard the horn blow loudly from the clearing.

"Damn." Was all Percy said.

"Wow, I thought you guys were going to beat us for a second there." I said.

"So did I." Percy said with a look of regret. "Two seconds earlier and my team would have won, just two seconds!"

He held his hand out to me. I took it and he helped me off of the ground.

"Sorry for pelting you with water, dude."

"It's okay, I didn't play much nicer with the whole ditch and the tackling you to the ground thing."

He laughed, "Yeah man, you gotta stop doing that. How many times do you think I'll be able to take being tackled to the ground? Next time I probably won't be as lucky as to stand up afterwards."

"Oh, don't be a baby, look at me I'm tiny. I probably couldn't hurt you very much even if I tried."

"Geez, give yourself more credit. You're like the second awesomest fighter in this camp.'

I raised my eyebrows at his comment to which he replied, "You know, besides me of course."

I rolled my eyes, "Oh yeah, of course." I said, my voice dripping in sarcasm.

"I'm serious though, you are a wicked awesome warrior."

I smiled at that and not because he paid me such a kind compliment, no, I smiled because he said 'wicked awesome'. It was just like Percy to say something so dumb and lighten up my whole day.

"Thanks, you're not too shabby yourself." I said in reply to his silly comment.

Then I remembered something suddenly and punched him I the shoulder…hard.

"Ow!" Percy yelled as he jumped back. "What the hell was that for Nico?"

"That," I said, "was for calling me that stupid nickname. I mean, what is it with you and that awful name? You just love screwing with me don't you?"

"I'll admit, it is quite enjoyable see that look in your eyes. That one where your cheeks get all pink and you start to shift uncomfortably."

We stood there for a minute in awkward silence before I finally decided to say something.

"We should probably get back. I'd like to see how we won, not that I'm surprised." Said with a smirk not much different from the one Percy wore earlier.

He just nodded and we walked back slowly.

On the way back I asked, "Is Annabeth back yet?"

His eyes darkened a little and his head swung down as I asked this. "No, she won't be back for another week."

"I'm sorry." I said, though I wasn't sorry at all, if anything I was excited to be able to have Percy all to myself.

"Don't be, it'll be nice to be away from all the pressure of being a good boyfriend for a little bit."

"There shouldn't be any pressure if you really love her Perce."

"Who said anything about love?"

"You mean you've haven't said the 'l' word yet?" I said with surprise written clearly across my face.

"I don't think I do, love her I mean. Not yet anyways. I mean I like her…a lot, but I don't love her." He said. "Why does that surprise you so much?"

"I-I don't know? It's just that you're always talking about her and when you're not, you're off making out with her. I just assumed you loved her." I said trying to keep the pleased tone out of my voice.

"Hey Nico," He said as we arrived in the clearing. "I'm going to visit my mom and Paul for a couple of days tomorrow and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?"

"Me?" I asked because the last time I was at his house things didn't go very well, I ended up shadow-traveling down to the Underworld and throwing a big tantrum right in front of Dad and Persephone after one of Percy's friend called me gay when Percy had left me alone with him while we were playing video games. Except the word he used was not quite as friendly as 'gay'. Percy ended up really worried and when he saw me at camp a couple of days later he started yelling at me because I left so suddenly and made him worry so much. When he asked me why I left I just told him I had gotten homesick, although I think he could tell I was lying, but thankfully didn't press any further on the subject. I hadn't told him the real reason I had left because I wasn't ready to come out to him. I'm still not.

"No, that Nico right over there. Of course you, dummy!" He said with a light shove. "It's always boring in that house with only a couple of old people, and if you tell my mom that I'll kill you."

"I don't know, Perce, things didn't go too well last time."

"Well, I'll just have to make this trip so fun that you won't even miss home." He said with a smile, and I felt guilty for lying to him.

"Sure, I'll come with you, but only if you promise not to invite any of your mortal friends over while I'm there." He gave me a weird look. "They just unsettle me that's all."

"You are a puzzle piece Mr. Di Angelo." He said with a short laugh.

The way he said my last name was not doing anything good to my emotions.

"Congratulations red team on your clever defeat." Chiron announced.

With that the red team cheered wildly.

"Also, the red team will get a break from washing the dishes after dinner tonight as reward for such a magnificent victory." He said after the obnoxious cheering ceased.

"Now everyone please proceed to your daily activities until dinner time." He said.

**Thank you for continuing to read this story. I hope you liked this chapter and there is lots more to come. The next chapter will be mainly about Nico's trip to Percy's house with a few interesting twists. Please review and let me know how I did. See you next chapter :D!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm soooooooo sorry for the extremely long wait. My dad said that I was banned until I could get my math grade up. Currently I have an A- and he said if I get anything under an A on my next test then he is going to delete my fanfiction account :'( ! The only reason I am allowed to post this chapter is because I received a 93% on my last quiz. BTW: if you didn't notice, my dad is kind of like that "Tigermom" except in guy form. I really hope I don't have to leave this site…**

When I had finally stopped psyching myself out, I decided to join Percy in the taxi that was waiting for us a little ways away from the camps entrance.

"Thank you for _finally_ coming. You know, I'm starting to think you don't actually want to be my friend and I just sort of forced you into it."

"Oh, shut up Percy. You're so full of it." I said trying not to think of how mad I was at his blissful unawareness of my undying love for him.

"Just saying." He replied. "Now buckle up, this might take a while."

When we arrived at Percy's apartment, it was close to midday. It wouldn't have taken so long if it wasn't for the excessive amount of stops we made due to the fact neither of us got out much. At one point, I even made the taxi cab driver stop so that I could buy hotdog from one of the stands on the sidewalk. When Percy asked what the point of me doing so, I simply replied that it was part of the "New York experience".

Sally and Paul's apartment was a lot smaller than I remembered…or maybe I had just grown a lot since then. Either way, it was so small that the only place I could sleep was in Percy's bed…with Percy in it. This weekend was going to be next to impossible to get through if I had to hold back all my stupid hormones just because I was sleeping in the same bed as my best friend. Why do the gods hate me so much?... Thanks a lot dad.

"Oh sweetie, I've missed you so much!" Sally said as she enveloped Percy into a tight bear hug. Once she was finished with her long reunion with Percy she turned towards me with kind eyes and said, "It's nice to see you again Nico. You must have grown at least a foot taller since I last saw you."

I blushed slightly at that comment and even more so when she reached over to me and pulled me into a hug. You would think it would be awkward hugging somebody you barely knew, but with Sally nothing was awkward.

'It's nice to see you again too, Mrs. Blofis." I said as politely as I could. Normally I don't bother with manners, but when you are with someone as kind and good- natured as Sally, it's hard not to.

"Oh please, call me Sally." She said with a sweet laugh, "I feel old when people call me missus."

I tried to stifle a laugh as Percy and Paul gave each other a manly handshake and a short nod. Before that day I could not ever imagine Percy giving a formal greeting as that.

When he turned towards me I simply held out my hand and said, "Hi, my name is Nico. Thank you very much for allowing me to stay with you guys for a couple of days."

He took my hand and gave it a hardy shake and said in reply, "No problem, any friend of Percy's is a friend of ours."

"Come on Nico, I'll show you to my room since you probably don't remember where it is." I totally remembered where it was, although I didn't dare say it in fear of sounding stalkerish or something along those lines.

His room was left just as I remembered it: dark blue curtains with matching sheets for the bed, a small wooden desk in the corner, and a small walk in closet on the side opposite of the desk.

"Is it just me or is this room a lot smaller than I remembered?" Percy said as he glanced around the room. Dang, was he reading my mind or something?

"No its not just you, but im pretty sure we just got bigger."

"I don't know about me, but im pretty sure you got way bigger. Youre already like two inches taller than me, and I thought you would never get any taller." He said with a teasing grin. I punched him in the shoulder at his cruel comment.

"Geez, Neek- uh, Nico! It was just a joke." He said defensively.

"So was that." I said pointing to his arm where I had just punched.

"Now we know where you got your sense of humor from… your dad." I threw him a scathing glance and just then the room grew five times darker and a shadow enveloped me.

"You can stop now Nico, I wont mess with you anymore. I promise." When I didn't stop the shadows from spreading he said, "Seriously Nico, you're creeping me out."

I grinned at him evilly and crept closer towards him.

He looked angsty and started to nervously shuffle backwards with each step I took forward. Just as I had begun to really freak him out though, a natural shadow cast over the window. This made me stop my sudden act of malevolence so that I glanced over towards the window to see who else was making a shadow besides me. That was a bad idea considering that the second I turned my eyes to the window, a harpy came crashing through it, shattering the glass all over the room. I had to shield my face quickly so no glass would reach my eyes. I reached for my stygian iron sword but soon realized that I had left it in the living room with the rest of my luggage. I hadn't thought that I would need to bring something to protect myself in Percy's room for gods sakes!

To the left of me Percy had already drawn out his pen and uncapped Riptide. The fact that Percy had a freaking awesome and convenient sword made me very annoyed, but the thoughts of annoyance were quickly turned towards gratification as the harpy lunged towards me and at the last second Percy jumped into action and saved my life.

He jumped right in front of me and slashed at the monster with a swing that just barely missed the things heart…if it even had one. In retaliation the harpy drew forward so quick that Percy didn't have time to react. Considering I had fought many harpies in the underworld, where they flourished, I knew their style of fighting a bit more than Percy. So when Percy didn't know the harpy would strike back, I did. I pushed Percy to the side with a hard shove and he flew to the wall with a grunt. As I did, two sharp talons sliced my arm just below my elbow. The blood started to flow rapidly from the cut and I stumbled backwards and fell to the ground.

I heard Percy call out to me but if I opened my mouth to tell him I was alright, I'd probably not be able to hold back a scream of pain. I saw the harpy draw forward to finish me off, but it stopped suddenly as Percy cut one of its wings straight through the middle. It turned on him, and as it did Percy aimed his sword and plunged it deep inside the monster. It turned to dust and vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

"Crap! Nico, are you okay?" He said as he ran to my side.

"Ya'm fine. Jus' need some abrsia an necor." My words came out a little bit slurred, but what I had meant to say was, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just need some ambrosia and nectar."

I guess he had understood what I was trying to say because he jumped up and went to his desk and pulled out nectar and ambrosia. He came back and took some nectar and placed it gently near my mouth. Normally I would have blushed the crap out of my cheeks, but under the circumstances my face stayed pale and clammy. I feebly swallowed the nectar and waited patiently as he fumbled around clumsily with the ambrosia as if he couldn't take it put fast enough. As soon as I finished the small chunk of ambrosia, I started to feel immensely better. I stood up and immediately knew it was a bad idea. I swayed back and forth before I just dropped. Luckily, Percy caught me before I hit the ground.

"Woah there, you just were sliced open by a freaking harpy! What makes you think you're already well enough to stand and walk around?" He said with one of his arms firmly around my waist and the other wrapped around my shoulders.

Now that the hero medicine had started to kick in, my ability to blush was now in full service. It took everything in me not to crush his lips against mine.

"Sorry, I don't want to be one of those people who over- exaggerate their injuries and lie around and mope about it. Besides, it's not that bad, I just got a little dizzy that's all." I said.

"A little dizzy? You looked like you were about to pass out." He said with a look of concern, and then he added, "I really don't think you realize how serious your injury is. The claw marks almost went to the bone."

"It's not a big deal Percy. And don't tell your mom, I don't want her to worry." I said, cringing at the thought of sally knowing that a fury had just attacked me and her son.

"It's gonna be kind of hard to keep this from her considering the condition of my window." He said while pointing at the pile of broken glass on the floor."

"Um…Percy, you can let go of me now." I said as soon as I realized he was still holding onto me.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry man." He said quickly let go of my waist but held onto my shoulders and helped me over to the bed so that I could sit on the bed.

"What do you want to do? We've got video games, movies, game boards." Percy listed off things we could do.

"Can we go outside? There's got to be plenty of things to do out there." I asked noticing that he had only listed off indoor activities.

"Not when you were just attacked and injured by a monster." He said.

"Seriously? Okay _mom_, whatever." I replied to his stubborn remarks to my condition.

"Hey, I will not be responsible for a broken Nico when we get back to camp." He said in defense.

I got an idea suddenly. I asked him if he could bring me a glass of water because I had started to feel light- headed, when in reality I just wanted an excuse for him to get close enough so that I could shadow- travel out of this prison he was keeping me in.

He agreed to get the water and when he was gone I got up and walked towards the door, feeling much better than I had on my first attempt to do so. I hid behind the door so that it provided me with the perfect shadow to travel in. When I heard his footsteps coming back to the room I gathered all my energy and reached my arm out to grab onto his arm. The second our arms connected, the world shadows closed in on us and we were both blinded temporarily. When I opened my eyes to see where I had taken us, I didn't recognize the place where we had ended up.

"What the…?" Percy said as he blinked away some of the fatigue that comes with shadow-traveling.

"Sorry Perce. This sort of traveling usually has a weird effect on people." I said.

He looked around still a little disoriented and then realization seemed to dawn on his face.

"Nico! Stop with this toughness crap! You just got ripped up by the harpy and I specifically said no outdoors yet. And what do you do?... you trick me and then kidnap me! What the hell are you trying to prove?" Through his anger though, I could see that hhe was hurt because I had tricked at him.

"Percy, you know as well as I do that it's hard for a demigod to just sit around and do nothing." I said to defend my deceiving actions.

"Still' that's no excuse to lie to me like that."

"I didn't lie… technically."

"You might as well have considering the way you tricked me."

His hurt face made me so sad and I didn't know what else to do so I threw my arms around him and enveloped him into a rare "Nico- hug".

"Geez Jackson, I'm sorry. Don't go all emo on me." I said with a smile in my voice.

When I pulled back from the hug, he had a small smile on his face with a hint of pink in his cheeks. The rarity of a blush on my cheeks made me forget the snide comment I was about to make about the hug I had just given him. He was such a confusing boy; one minute he was outgoing and funny (and perfectly straight) and the next minute he goes all blushy on me. I pushed the idea aside because I knew I couldn't get my hopes up. It was probably just because he was happy that I was actually showing normal human happiness for once.

"Alright Fish Breath, be a nice host and show me around the city." I said and he laughed at my name for him.

"Come on, first stop: the Statue of Liberty."

**Wow, that was kind of hard to write. I'm kind of trying to ease into the plot for their trip to Percy's so I hope it turns out the way I want it to. Again, I'm super sorry for the long wait. I'll try to finish the story fast, although I still plan on it being pretty long. See you next chapter, although no more promises on when that will be. Blame my dad, not me. Please review and tell me how this chapter was. **


	5. Chapter 5

It took us a little more than fifteen minutes to make it to the great Statue of Liberty. It was pretty amazing. We got out of the taxi we had taken and ran up to the edge of the water. I looked at the boats that were required to make it to the little island that the statue was on and became immediately queasy. I have always gotten sea sickness and that is the reason I have always tried to avoid riding on boats. Percy looked at me with a gleam in his eyes and grabbed my hand and started to run to the part of the pier that wasn't surrounded by a fence. I was so bewildered that I didn't even have time to make him stop and tell me what was going on. Before I knew what was happening he pulled me into the water. I closed my eyes and squeezed my mouth shut and waited for the icy cold water to enclose around me.

I waited for what seemed like ages for the cold, but it never came, neither did the wetness or the inability to breath. Finally I decided to open my eyes and look around. Percy was floating beside me with a huge stupid grin on his face. He was still holding onto my hand so I couldn't exactly focus as much as I would have liked, so that I could kick Percy's butt for the little stunt he pulled. Although, it was disappointing that the only reason he was still holding my hand was to keep me safe from the water. He pointed at something above us so I turned to look up and my breath caught in my mouth. Up above us, through the greenish-bluish water, was the Statue of Liberty, only this time it looked ten times more beautiful. The effect that the sunlight and the ocean water combined had on the statue was breathtaking.

"Wow."

"I know, right?" Percy said. "I used to come here whenever I needed some alone- time."

"I can see why." I replied.

We sat there in comfortable silence for a couple minutes just staring up at Lady Liberty. Then he started to tell me interesting facts about the statue that you wouldn't find in any American History textbook. He told me that Lady Liberty was actually a gift for Olympus, not America, but that's how the mortals took it because of the Mist. He also told me that it was meant to resemble Athena and her great wisdom in the justice system, hence Lady _Liberty_. He also told me some not so awesome facts like how the statue often reminded him of Annabeth, which kind of ruined the statue for me.

After that my mood was dampened so I asked him if we could go somewhere else. He took me to Time Square, which was cool, but not quite as majestic and artful as the Statue of Liberty. I actually couldn't really see why everyone made such a big deal about it, there was nothing particularly special about Time Square. By the time we made into the Farris Wheel line in the middle of a Toys R Us, the sun had already begin to drop low into the horizon.

"New York is freaking awesome! I mean, what other place has a gigantic Farris Wheel in the middle of a multiple story Toys R Us?" I said while looking out the window at the great city which was starting to grow bright with lights filling up the night sky.

"Personally, I don't see what the big deal is? I've lived here my whole life, so that might be the reason I don't see the "magic" that everyone is always talking about." He said with a smile at my ardent comment.

"Don't be a buzz kill Perce."

"Okay okay, I'll stop." He said while holding back a fit of laughter at the pout that had grown on his face due to his depressing words.

"Next," said the employee, "tickets please."

We handed him our tickets and got onto the very manly Barbie car.

"Oh, great, twenty plus different carriers and we get stuck with the Barbie car." I said, letting the sarcasm drench my voice.

"Who's the buzz kill now, Neeks?" Percy said, although he didn't look too thrilled with our situation either.

"Seriously, if we weren't very high up right now I'd lunge for your throat. I don't know why I even bother telling you not to call me Neeks or Nicky, you'll just do it anyway." I said and he smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye.

"You're just now starting to realize that?" He said with a smirk on his lips.

…OoO…

On the way back to Percy's place we mostly just gazed in awe at the beautiful city lights but we also talked a little.

We were about a block away from his apartment when he asked me, "Hey Nico?"

"Yeah?"

"Why is it that you never have a girlfriend? You're like sixteen already, and I never even hear you talk about girls."

The question startled me. I didn't know whether to tell him the truth or make up some quick lie. He probably would fall for the lie considering how very dense he was.

"Um, uh…why do ask?" Wow, way to keep your cool. I mentally smacked myself for stuttering in front of Percy.

"Just curious. No real reason I guess." He replied easily back.

What now? "Nobody would ever want to go out with me." There, at least that's not a lie.

"That's not true. Any girl would be lucky to have you as a boyfriend." He said with a look of astonishment on his face, which was quite flattering actually.

"Girls aren't exactly my problem." I mumbled too low for him to hear.

"What was that?" He asked.

"Never mind, it's not important."

"Nico, don't be like that. Why do you always-" he was cut off by Sally rushing over and hugging him as soon as they entered the house.

"Where were you guys?" She asked with a worried expression and it looked as if she had been crying recently.

"Crap, I'm sorry mom. This is all my fault, I wanted to show Nico around the city. I totally lost track of time. I should have told you we were leaving. It won't happen again, I promise." Percy said with guilt written all over his face.

"No Sally, this is my fault, don't blame your son. I pretty much forced him to show me the city." I said, not wanting Percy to get in trouble for my wrong-doings.

"I'll be okay." She said. "It's just that when I called you guys for lunch and you didn't answer, I went to check on you guys and you weren't there. Instead there was just glass everywhere on the ground and some blood on the floor."

There was silence. Then she started to talk again, "What happened in there?"

"You don't have to worry Mrs. Blofis-"

"Sally."

"Sorry. Sally, you don't have to worry, we were play- fighting and I guess it got a little out of hand. And as for the blood, I got a tiny cut and it started bleeding pretty bad, but I took some medicine and its healing pretty rapidly."

Her features seemed to soften as I told her my little white lie, but I could tell it still worried her.

"Well dinner is ready, so if you didn't already eat, dig in." She said as she turned around and quickly made for her room. Paul turned around to follow her when she saw how upset she was.

"Dang it, I totally forgot to tell mom we left, although, you didn't give me much of a warning in the first place." He said with an accusing glare.

"I'm so sorry Perce. I just didn't want you to keep me cooped up in that tiny room all day."

"You're such a trouble maker." He said while shaking his head and laughing.

…OoO…

The next day we went to central park as a continuance of my tour yesterday. The weirdest thing happened, some guy we met started hitting on me. It was actually very flattering.

"So, how long are you going to be in the city?" asked the tall cute teen in the blue hoodie and faded jeans.

"Just for today and a little while tomorrow and then I have to be heading back to tech camp with Percy." I replied with a small smile. Even though I was in love with Percy, I knew this guy was hot. You'd have to be blind not to see it. He was about six foot two and he had curly brown hair that complimented his hazel eyes perfectly.

"That's a shame, I would have liked to have gotten to know you more." He said with a small wink that Percy wouldn't see.

A blush spread across my cheeks and I tried to hide it while cover my face with my arm while I pretended to cough. I couldn't believe he was actually flirting with me. Was I that obvious? Since I was only staying for one more day in New York City and probably never going to see him, I figured I'd make the most of this situation.

"There's still today." I said giving him a suggestive smile. Mr. Dense to the left of me was just standing there staring at something in the distance.

"I'm hope I'm not upsetting your boyfriend." He said then turned to Percy and said, "You should hold onto this one; don't let him slip away."

"And you," He turned to me, "I'd like to hang out today, if that's alright with your boyfriend?"

Percy looked confused for a second then said, "No, were not dating or anything! Were best friends! Besides were not even gay. Sorry for the miscommunication."

He shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh, sorry. I guess I was just catching a completely wrong vibe." The friendly teen said.

"Well, not _completely_ wrong." I said to him. Then I motioned towards oblivious Percy with my head and rolled my eyes.

The guy seemed to understand what I meant and gave me a look of sympathy.

"Wanna grab some coffee and talk about it?" He whispered so that Percy couldn't hear.

"Sure. Thanks." I said to him while trying to think of a nice way to get rid of Percy.

"Hey Percy," I said, "You go ahead and check in with Sally. I have to get something to eat real quickly, I'm starving."

"Okay, don't get lost. Do you know my mom's number just in case you do get lost?" He asked.

I leaned in and whispered, "Shadow-traveler, remember?"

"Oh, right." He said, looking embarrassed that he had even said anything in the first place.

He gave an awkward wave then left me and the gorgeous teen to check in with his mom.

"So let me get this straight? You are gay, right" He (who I found out earlier was named Zeke) asked as we stood in line at a Starbucks.

"Yes."

"And, Percy doesn't know?"

"Correct."

"Why wouldn't you tell your best friend you're gay? Don't you think he would understand? Or is he the homophobic type?"

"Guess again." I said grimly.

"I give up. Why?"

"I love the huge knuckle head."

"Ouch, that's gotta hurt."

"Yeah it does. Especially because he's got a totally hot girlfriend who is practically a genius architect."

"You should at least tell him you're gay. He is your best friend, he deserves to know."

"I'm afraid he'll figure it out if he knows and then our friendship will be ruined. I'm not ready to give that up and it's already so obvious."

I waited as Zeke ordered his vanilla Frappuccino and then ordered decaf black coffee (I didn't need anything else keeping me up tonight). Once our coffees were ready, we sat down at a table and started to talk some more.

"You know," He said, "There are a lot of other guys out there who would be happy to have you as their boyfriend."

"It's funny, Percy said the same thing, except he said girls, not boys." I said. "You know, it feels good to tell someone other than Rachel about the real me." He gave me a look so I explained that Rachel was my best friend from camp.

"It's not that I'm hiding it from anybody but Percy, it's just that nobody cares about me enough to even want to know which team I swing for." I said and he gave me a look of confusion.

"Screw them, you're hot. Why would nobody care about you, you seem like a pretty nice guy to me?" The compliments he gave me were definitely showing on my face in the form of redness.

"Thank you. Where I live, people are scared of me. Percy and Rachel are the only friends I have."

"That can't be right, you're not scary at all." He said, "In fact, I'd ask you out on a real date if it weren't for the fact that someone already pretty much owns your love life already." Zeke said with a flirtatious grin.

"And if I wasn't in love with my best friend, I'd probably say yes." His smile brightened as I said this.

I glanced over at the clock in the corner of the coffee shop and saw how late it was getting. "It's been nice meeting you Zeke, but it's getting pretty late and I have to get back to the apartment before Percy starts to worry."

He stood up with me and gave me a friendly hug and said, "Well, if you're ever in the city and need someone to talk to, here's my number. Don't hesitate to call."

We walked out of Starbucks, said our final farewells, and head off in opposite directions towards our destinations. This is what I've needed for a long while now, a fresh perspective. And now that I had one I felt much better. It was as if a huge weight had been taken off my shoulder, and in addition I made a new friend which was a rare occurrence for me. With that in mind I went back to the apartment with renewed happiness.

**Thank you for reading! I hope you will review to tell me how I did on this chapter. The next chapter will hopefully be out soon, but no promises. See you next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, I quietly tiptoed out of the room not wanting to wake Percy. When I reached the bathroom, I closed the door behind me and turned the shower on. I started to brush my teeth and as a delicious smell wafted through the closed smelled like bacon mixed with hash browns and eggs. Bacon…one of my favorite foods in the whole world. That's one of the reasons I didn't like going to the Underworld, they didn't have bacon. I decided I'd take a really fast shower so that Percy wouldn't wake up and eat all the food like the gigantic pig he is. I sighed as I thought this, because unfortunately I loved this gigantic pig.

I stripped down as fast as I could and stepped into the steaming shower and let the warm water soak through my hair. I only let myself relax in the water for a little more than a minute before I hurried to lather my hair with shampoo. As soon as I finished rinsing the rest of the soap off of my body, I turned the shower off and stepped out of the shower dripping wet and reached for the towel that was hanging on a hook on the wall.

The traffic was really loud just outside the window so I didn't hear the door open, but I did feel the slight breeze. I jumped and turned around and came face to face with a very flustered Percy.

"Jeez, what the hell Percy?" I yelled as I scurried around trying to cover my skinny, naked body.

He just stood there staring at me in shock.

"Uh…Percy why are you staring at me?" I said trying to keep the panic out of my voice.

"I-I'm sorry N-Nico. I didn't mean to walk in on you." He finally averted his eyes as he continued, "I should have been paying attention, I should have seen the bathroom light on."

He had a deep red blush spreading throughout his cheeks.

"It's alright, I should have locked the door. Sorry I'm not used to having anybody else in the same house as me." I said, taking pity on the dark haired boy.

"Um…right, so… breakfast is ready. Come whenever youre ready…I guess." As soon as he finished that incredibly awkward statement, he turned quickly on his heel and closed the door behind him.

I groaned loudly as soon as I could no longer hear his footsteps. That was by far the most awkward and embarrassing moment of my life! Why the heck hadn't I locked the door? Crap. Just crap. I probably scarred the poor guy for life.

I dried myself down as fast as I could, then went into his room and grabbed a new pair of clothes. I pulled my black v-neck over my head and shimmied into my dark blue skinny jeans. I then ruffled my flat hair to give it some volume and went over to the mirror to see how I looked. It wasn't the best image but it was probably the best I was going to get so I walked out of his room and towards the kitchen. Before I got there though, I heard Percy talking to his mom and when I heard him say my name I stopped in my tracks.

"…can't believe I just walked in on Nico in the bathroom! Why do I always have to mess everything up?"

"You didn't mess anything up sweetie. What, do think he won't want to be your friend anymore just because you accidently saw him naked?"

"Not only did I see him naked, but I _stared_ at him after I made that discovery."

"It's only a matter of time before he finds out Percy."

"I'm not that obvious am I? It was just one slip up." What? Obvious about what?

"It's not that, he is your best friend, he's bound to figure it out eventually…even if you do hide it well."

"Thanks for thoroughly scaring the crap out of me, mom. If he finds out, he'll never want to talk to me again!"

"Oh stop over exaggerating, if he is truly your friend, he'll understand and help you to move on with your life."

"Again, thanks for the awesome pep talk." Percy said sarcastically.

I decided it would be extremely rude if I kept eavesdropping so I walked in casually as if I hadn't been just around the corner listening to their conversation. Percy looked startled when I walked into the kitchen and I couldn't keep the blush from rising to my cheeks.

"Sorry about earlier." Percy apologized. I nodded as I tried to read the expression on his face. I was really curious about what he was keeping from me. All I could tell from his facial expression was that he was probably even more embarrassed with the situation than I was, and that was saying something.

"Would you like some eggs and bacon, Nico?" Sally kindly asked.

"Yes please." I said, noticing the large pan filled with blue-dyed eggs.

"Where's your food Percy?" I asked wondering why he didn't have any food in front of him. Usually he ate like a horse.

"I'm just not hungry." He shrugged.

"You're always hungry." I said, not buying his answer.

"You make me sound fat." He deadpanned.

"Don't act like a chick Percy, you know youre not fat." I said hoping I didn't actually hurt his feelings by supposedly implying that he was fat.

There was a long pause. Finally Sally said, "Are you packed Nico? You guys are leaving in about an hour."

"Yes, thank you very much for letting me stay with you Sally. I had a wonderful time and your cooking is great." I said hoping to get rid of some of the tension in the room.

"It was my pleasure Nico, I hope you'll be able to come back for another visit soon. Paul and I would love to see you again. I _know_ Percy would." As she said this I saw Percy give her a glare out of the corner of my eye.

"I would love to come again…if that's okay with Percy of course?" I added, remembering the glare he had given his mom after mentioning Nico returning.

"Of course it is." He said giving me the why-wouldn't-it-be stare.

**Okay, for those of you that have been reading this story, I got 100% on that math test that determined whether or not my fanfiction account would have a future or not! It was you reviewers that gave me the inspiration to do well on that test, so I have to thank you guys for all the support. Also I'm very sorry for not posting this chapter sooner, it's just been hard to do with softball and CSTs. Also thank you so much to all those people that have favorited, story alerted, and reviewed this story. All your love means the world to me. I also have to thank my awesome friend Torre for criticizing my story and helping me to update as much as I have. See ya next chapter…hopefully soon.**


	7. Chapter 7

"Just don't let go, okay?" I said.

Percy's eyes were wide with fear as he just learned that he would be shadow-travelling back with me.

"This isn't going to hurt is it?" He asked, his voice laced with concern. "Because I've seen you shadow-travel and it doesn't look like the most comfortable thing to do."

"Don't worry, it won't hurt, but I do have to warn you, it does have some…interesting effects on your hormones."

"What sort of effects?"

"The ones you would probably get while making out with Annabeth."

"Uh…Annabeth and I aren't together anymore."

I choked on the water I was drinking when he said that.

"What? Why not?" I said hoping my face didn't show how happy I was now that I had Percy all to myself.

"She found out about something that I had been trying to hide from her for so long." He said and while staring at something he apparently found interesting on his shoes.

"What did she find out about? Did she find your porn collection?" I asked.

"I don't have any porn collections!" He said defensively.

I laughed, "Relax Percy, it was a joke." I said as his face reddened. "But seriously, what did she find out about?"

"I don't really want to talk about it. It's not important." Something about the way he said this made me think it _was_ important, but I decided not to push him about it.

"Okay, we can talk about later when you're not so upset about the break up." I said.

"No, I mean I don't ever want to talk about it. It's sort of embarrassing." He said and continued to look down at that spot on his shoes.

"Percy, I'm your best friend, you can always talk to me about anything. I know all of my embarrassing secrets so it can't possibly be that bad." Well except the part about me being in love with you, I thought guiltily.

"Oh yes it actually can be that bad. I can pretty much guarantee that it is much worse than any of your embarrassing secrets." I highly doubt that.

"Fine, be that way." I said with a small glare towards him.

"Don't be so immature." He said and stuck his tongue out at me.

"Really, I'm the immature one? _You're_ the one who just stuck their tongue out at me!" I replied.

"Wait weren't we talking about something before?" He suddenly said.

I thought about it for a while and then said, "Shadow- travelling"

"Oh yeah. So…it messes with hormones."

"Yep." I said awkwardly.

"How far of an extant does it mess with your hormones?"

"Quite a bit."

"Oh," Was all he said.

"Well this is awkward." I said.

"Yeah, let's just get this over with." That kind of offended me.

"Okay, grab your stuff and then get behind me and hug me from behind."

He looked at me like I was crazy. "What? That's the only way I can bring somebody else through the shadows." That was a total lie, it was just to see how it felt to be close to Percy. I should feel bad about it, but I wasn't.

"Sure." He said unconvincingly as he did as he was told.

The touch made me shiver slightly and I prayed to my father that he didn't feel it.

We shuffled over to a shadow in the corner of the room and I gathered all my strength so that I could bring us both to camp. Suddenly the world warped before us and I could feel the familiar tingle in the lower region of my body. I could feel the effects of the shadow- travelling on Percy as his hard on poked my behind. I almost couldn't take this, it was a hundred times better than anything that I had ever felt while travelling alone. Almost as soon as it started though, it ended and we landed in Percy's cabin. We stumbled backwards and I fell on top of him and onto his bed. I quickly got off of him once I heard him groan. That groan definitely didn't help my little problem go away.

"Wow." Percy said, and he looked dazed.

"Told you."

"It messes with your hormones." I said.

His face immediately turned a deep shade of red and his hands flew down to his crotch to hide his bonar.

"Sorry." He said.

"Don't say sorry, it's not your fault." I said as I stared down at his hands willing myself to look away but not obliging to my thoughts.

"I'm gonna go see what Rachel's doing, I'll see you at lunch." I said as I walked out of his cabin leaving him red and a little frightened.

…OoO…

"Hah, you should have seen it, his face turned a completely different color. He popped a freaking bonar. Damn, shadow-travelling rocks!"

"Ewwww, Nico! I don't want to hear about your disgusting fantasies about _him_!" Rachel replied.

"How many times do I have to tell you Rachel, it wasn't a fantasy, it actually happened. I told him to grab me from behind and when we were travelling I felt the bulge through his pants." I said to a very disbelieving Rachel.

"Somehow I don't see Percy as the gay type." She said while looking at me skeptically. I grinned internally because I didn't yet tell her that those were the normal effects of shadow- travelling. She just thought that being that close to me was the thing that made Percy so horny.

"Well you thought wrong, I've been known to change a lot of guys' sexualities." I said with a smirk.

"Fine, ill just go ask Percy about his new found love for you." She said as she waltzed over towards his cabin.

"Wait! Come back here Rach, you know I was just kidding. Psh, like he'd ever fall for someone like me." I said.

"What do you mean someone like you? You're awesome. I wouldn't be your friend if you were anything less than incredible." She said with a fond smile.

To answer her original question I said, "Well, for starters, I have a penis."

Rachel's eyes grew wide, "You do?"

I smacked her on the arm as her expression of pseudo-shock took on one of amusement.

"Yes, would you like some proof." I said while fake-getting ready to pull my pants zipper down.

"Ewwwww." She said and shielded her eyes. "Please don't, I believe you, just please put it away. I'm pretty sure that would scar me for life."

"Gee thanks." I said, my voice dripping in sarcasm.

"Don't mention it." She said. "Seriously…don't…ever."

"So…that's it, you think that just because you are a guy that Percy won't like you? You have no idea, for all we know he's a huge closet case." Rachel said, trying to cheer me up.

"I highly doubt that." I told her and then we went our separate ways, me to my cabin and hers to the eating pavilion.

…OoO…

I walked as quietly as I could through the dense forest. I tried to retrace my exact steps from the last time I had been in the woods to follow the stranger that had been spying on me. I turned the corner and saw the huge tree house looming high above my head. I was excited to see what else the stranger had put in there since my last visit. I was about to climb up the ladder when I heard light footsteps. I turned quickly on my heel and dove for cover under a bush.

I gasped softly as I saw who came clambering down the tree house.

…**To Be Continued **

**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It was a little hard to write but I got through it. Sorry about the ending, but I have to keep you guys in suspense a little longer. Also thank you very much to all of you that have reviewed, favorite, story alerted or author alerted this! It makes my day whenever I go on my email and find all of the emails from Fanfiction! See you next week!**


	8. Chapter 8

Percy's body came into view and I couldn't stop the choked sound I made in the back of my throat. He looked over to see who had discovered his secret hideout. He was about to walk over to the bush that I was hidden behind, when someone stepped out of the greenery from the other side of the clearing. My heart was racing from almost being caught and my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as I saw who stepped out of the trees.

Annabeth quickly walked over to where Percy was. She stopped directly in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" She said quietly but with much venom.

"I was just looking around." He said looking to the ground. "I know what you said, but I was really curious as to what you were hiding from me."

"That's none of your business." She said with the same calmness as before.

"You know what?" He asked and replied without letting her answer, "You can no longer be mad at me because you were hiding the exact same thing from me as I was from you. There has to be at least twenty drawings of him in there."

"How did you find those, they were hidden!" She said as she lost her cool.

"I have my ways", was all he said.

There was a pause as they both glared each other down. At this point I was really confused. Does this mean Annabeth likes _me_? And Percy was hiding the _exact_ same thing?...so Annabeth _and_ Percy like me? When the hell did that happen?

"When did you get back?" Percy asked.

"Earlier today, but don't change the subject. I still want to know why you would betray my trust like that…and seriously, those sketches were under the floor boards for gods sakes! How could you have possibly found them?"

"That is for me to know and for you never to find out. I did it so that I could find out what you have been hiding for so long without worrying about what me snooping around your stuff would do to our relationship."

"Just because we aren't in a relationship anymore doesn't mean that we're not friends. You had no right to look through my stuff like that." Annabeth said and she looked as if she was close to crying.

"You had no right to keep that from me. Once you found out about my screwed up problem, you should have told me yours."

"How could I? Is that what you wanted to hear, that I was using you to get to him?" She said, and now she was crying.

"I still don't get it, why would you want to have sex with someone you didn't even love" She hung her head low and didn't answer him.

Percy seemed to have a sudden epiphany. "You were trying to make him jealous! I can't believe you."

Wow, could this really have all been about me? I seriously think that they're talking about someone else.

I didn't want to confront them about it…or at least not yet. And if I was going to do that, I would have to get out of there before I was caught. I turned around slowly and tiptoed back towards camp, careful not to step on any twigs.

…OoO…

Since I still wasn't sure if I heard everything correctly, I decided to test it out and see if Percy and Annabeth really did like me.

I walked over towards Annabeth and gave her a bright smile. "Hey Annabeth, when did you get back?"

"Earlier today." She said with a bright blush on her cheeks.

I reached over towards her and pulled her into a hug, which was extremely rare for me, but I had to find out if she really did like me. Sure enough she took in a sharp breath and shivered a little when my hand lightly touched her lower back. Hoe could I not have seen this before? Am I really as oblivious as Percy? No, I was even more oblivious than Percy because I didn't notice two people who had a crush on me where as he only didn't notice one.

I realized I was still holding onto her after my long train of thought ended and I quickly pulled away. I looked her in the eyes and saw that they betrayed her disappointment of pulling away.

Lost deep in thought again, I muttered a quick apology and turned to go find Percy.

I walked into the fighting arena because that was where you could usually find Percy. I looked around but all I saw were a couple of Demeter's and Hephaestus's kids.

"Hey Clarisse. Do you happen t know where Percy is?"

"No, I thought he would be with you, your all he ever talks about." She said while rolling her eyes. "I swear if I have to hear any more about how 'awesome Nico is', or 'you couldn't beat him in a fight, he has a freaking zombie army!' I'm going to strangle someone, and that someone will most likely be you. Then maybe I won't have to hear him talking about you all the time.

I blushed as she said that. I honestly didn't think someone as awesome as Percy could like someone as weird as me, but all the signs seem to be pointing towards it. As I was walking towards Percy's cabin, I bumped into someone.

"I'm sorry." I said quickly as I tried to steady the person.

"N-Nico, no I'm sorry, it's not your fault, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." Percy said as he turned to leave.

Just by bumping into me he was getting all jumpy. This was going to be fun. I know ive been waiting a long, long, long time for Percy to see me in the way I see him, but I think it would be really funny to see him as flustered as he always sees me whenever im around him, so I won't confess my love for him just yet. I'll just see how much he actually likes me first…tease him a little.

I grabbed his hand as he was walking away. I spun him around to face me.

"Where are you going? I come to see me and all I get is my best friend ditching me. That's not fair." I said and let go of his hand as I turned with my head low and started to walk toward my cabin. I listened intently to see if he would stop me, and he did, just like I thought he would.

"Wait Nico, come back. I'm sorry, it's just I've been a little stressed out lately." He said with a sigh.

I turned around and walked over to him and pulled him into a hug. Wow that's twice in one day, that's a record for me.

"I'm sorry, I know your still sad about your break up with Annabeth." I said.

I pulled out of the hug and looked into his eyes. They flickered with the same disappointment as Annabeth's had.

"Hey Nico?"

"Yeah Perce?"

"I actually have to go help Clarisse teach a class, but if you want to hang out later you can come by my cabin after dinner."

I tried to hide my disappointment as I said, "Sure, see ya then."

He smiled and turned towards the arena.

I decided it was time for me to get working on my song I was writing, so I headed down to my not-so-secret-place-thanks-to-Annabeth beach. With my guitar in one hand and song sheets in the other, I stepped into a shadow and travelled to the beautiful picturesque beach.

I'm not really sure I liked this chapter…it was the hardest to write so far. Anyways tell me what you think. I always appreciate all your reviews! Also I am really sorry it took me so long to update, its just that im super busy with school work right now. See ya next chapter!


	9. Chapter 9

As soon as I was finished with my alone time at the beach, I went straight to Percy's cabin. I walked in without even knocking, hoping to catch him off guard. He jumped about a foot off his bed and quickly hid something behind his back when he saw it was me.

"Whacha got there Percy?"

"Um, hi Nico." He said looking really nervous. "Have you ever heard of knocking?"

"Oh, im sorry," I said with a shamed look. "I-well I just thought that…" I trailed off to make my little apology more dramatic.

"Oh come on Nico, don't give me the guilt trip!" He whined.

He walked over to me, but I wouldn't smile to give him the satisfaction that he was forgiven. He brought up his arms and I thought he was going to hug me. I had a smirk on my face knowing that I had just won, until he did something totally unexpected and started to tickle me. I giggled as his hands moved across my stomach, and I tried to swat his hands away but I was too weak with laughter. I dropped to the ground in hopes that he would stop but he seemed determined to kill me via tickling. When I fell to the ground, he came right down with me and straddled my waist as he began to tickle under my arms.

I could tell from how things were going that this was definitely not going to end well if this continued. Percy looked so hot when he was smiling like that and it didn't help that he was on top of me. I could already feel the blood rushing downwards. The only thing stopping my problem was that I was laughing uncontrollably and his tickling was beginning to hurt.

Instead of just giving in and letting him win, I decided to try and wriggle out of his grip. His legs were tightly wrapped around me so I used all my strength and threw him off of me. Percy was momentarily stunned for a second, which gave me the perfect opportunity to tackle him and pin him to the ground with his hands above his head.

I leaned down and pressed my body gently on his as I leaned down and whispered into his ear, "I win."

I felt a shiver rush down Percy's body and smiled to myself at the affect I had on him. I knew if I didn't get off of him soon my body would catch up with my mind and that would not be good, so I quickly got off of him. Percy cheeks were burning and he also looked a little disappointed. This satisfied me so I held out my hand to help him get up. He took it and once he was up I asked him a question that had been bothering me since I walked into his cabin.

"Hey Perce?"

"What Nico?" He said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Jeez, somebody's on their period." I said jokingly.

"Sorry," Percy said begrudgingly. "I hate losing, seriously it kills me."

"Get over it, I won fair and square."

"Yeah I know," He said with a pouty face. I seriously almost kissed him there if it wasn't for the strong urge to continue messing with him like the wonderful angel I am. "what was your question?"

"Oh yeah, um…what was that thing that you were holding behind your back?"

His face turned visibly pinker. "I-I wasn't holding anything behind my back."

"Gods Percy," I said laughing. "you suck at lying."

"I'm not lying." He said defiantly.

"Fine, I guess ill just have to ask Tyson if you won't tell me."

That seemed to scare him because his face turned very pale. "W-why would you ask my brother about something that doesn't exist?"

"Oh come on Percy, don't you trust me?" I said giving him my best puppy dog face. Percy groaned and turned his eyes away from me.

"I won't tell anyone." I prompted.

He wouldn't budge so I turned around and walked towards the door swaying my hips a lot more than necessary. I turned back to catch one last glance at Percy and saw him checking out my butt. I smirked and said, "Youre making this a lot more difficult than you have to."

I turned back around and walked out the door leaving him to decipher the meaning of what I had just said.

"Where are you going?" Percy yelled after me. "It seems that you only ever hang out with me for less than five minutes anymore.

I thought about this for a couple of seconds then replied, "I'll start to hang out with you longer once you tell me what you've been hiding from me."

…OoO…

Soon after, I headed towards cabin nine to see if Tyson would be there. He usually hung around in the Hephaestus cabin to help them build weapons and such. I found him at the far end of the cabin sitting at a bench and tinkering with a small metal thing that looked kind of like a watch.

"Hey Tyson." I said with a smile.

"Hi Nico." Tyson said as he looked up with a bright grin.

"Can I ask you a question," I asked. "about Percy?"

He nodded his head enthusiastically with the grin still on his face.

I thought about the item Percy was holding behind his back earlier today. It was relatively small and square. "Does Percy have any small personal items like a box of keepsakes or a journal?"

"Mhmm, yes, Percy keep diary."

I couldn't help but to crack up internally at the thought of Percy keeping a _diary_. But I no suppose to tell anybody. Oops, you not gonna tell on me, are you?"

"Don't worry Tyson, your secret is safe with me." He looked at me worriedly but I gave him a reassuring smile and he went back to happily toying with his little hunk of unidentified metal.

I walked out of cabin nine as I started to plot how I was going to get Percy to confess his feelings for me.

**I am sorry that it took me so long to update:( I had finals that I had to study for, but school ended yesterday for me, so now you guys will be getting more frequent updates. Thank you so much for all the awesome reviews and encouragement. Please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter. The next chapter should be posted in a few days due to an excessive amount of softball games that I have to play this weekend. Again I'm so sorry for the super long wait. See ya next chapter! I'd also like to thank Torre for constantly nagging me to update:)**


	10. Chapter 10

I walked into the pavilion to eat dinner. I asked for tacos with apple slices and some cream soda. As usual everybody gave me weird looks as I walked towards the bonfire to give my dad some of my best apple slices and a bit of my cream soda. When I finally made it to my table, I looked around to see where Percy was, but he was nowhere in sight.

Suddenly I had this weird feeling that somebody was watching me. I looked behind me and saw piercing grey eyes staring straight into my soul. I almost jumped out of my chair. Annabeth didn't even look away when I looked right at her; it was really starting to creep me out. I decided that since Percy was not here and Rachel had some official Oracle business to attend to, that I would sit with Annabeth tonight.

I waved her over but she didn't seem to notice so I had to get up and walk over to the Athena table.

"Annabeth," I said as I waved my hands in front of her eyes hoping to break her trance. "Annabeth, you there?"

She blinked a couple of times before blushing and saying, "Oh, hey Nico, what's up?"

"I just came to see if you wanted to come eat with me over at the Hades table?"

Her facial expression went from one of confusion to nervousness and finally to happiness in the span of about five seconds before she answered, "Sure, I'll be over in a minute okay?"

"Okay, thanks." I said, flashing her my best smile.

I really shouldn't lead her on like this. I feel kind of bad for doing that, but at the same time I feel like I deserve some revenge for the pain she has caused me. I mean come on, she was with Percy even though she was into me. What was the point of that? And just to think that all that time that Percy and Annabeth spent sucking face just to get me jealous could have been spent with me and Percy making out! Well, since I had already got Percy back by messing with his emotions, it was time for a little Annabeth revenge.

She set her tray of food down at the seat right across from me. She sat down and started to avoid my eyes while continuing to eat. Then out of nowhere she looks up and says,"So, how've you been Skullboy?"

I choked on my taco as she said that, "You too?"

"What do you mean?"

"Skullboy?"

"Oh, that. Well, since I give pretty much everybody some sort of clever nickname, thought it was time to give you yours."

"Wow, you and Percy are so much alike." I said while shaking my head. The thought of Percy and Annabeth being alike disturbed me.

I could have sworn that she said something under her breath along the lines of "You have no idea."

"What was that?" I asked hoping to catch her off guard.

She looked up with pink-tinged cheeks and said, "Nothing."

We ate in silence for a couple of minutes before she looked up and said, "You never answered my question."

"Huh?"

"How've you been lately?"

"Oh, um…" I said trying to come up with an answer. "I've been okay, found out some interesting news the other day when I was walking through the woods."

Here's the thing, I was planning on telling Percy how I felt today anyways, so why not let Annabeth know that I had heard what they said?

Annabeth paled, but put on a brave face. "Why were you in the woods?"

Crap, how am I supposed to answer that? "Never mind why I was there, don't you want to know what I heard?"

"I guess; what did you hear?" Her voice was almost angry as if she knew exactly what I was going to say.

"Well, I was walking through the woods when I heard these voices. I headed towards the voices because I was curious to see who else was brave enough to venture so far into the forest. All of the sudden though, the talking changed to yelling. I finally came into range and heard clearly what the people were saying. It wasn't as if I was eavesdropping, I was just trying to see who it was."

By this time Annabeth started to fidget around in her seat. I had pity on her and decided not to drag it out any further.

"I know." Was all I said.

She stood up so fast that her chair toppled over behind her.

"Crap Nico! What the hell were you doing in the woods in the first place?" She yelled.

Annabeth and I were suddenly the main focus of everybody's attention at the moment. I was starting to think that telling her that I knew in public was a mistake.

"Maybe we should discuss this somewhere else." I reasonably suggested.

"No, I want to know now. What were you doing in the woods?" She dragged out each word as if she were explaining something to a kindergartener.

"You should know, considering you are the only one who knows my place of relaxation." I said venomously.

"H-how do you know that" She said looking scared that I had found out about her stalking me.

"Let's just say that you're not as stealthy as you think you are."

She looked around the room and as if she just realized that everyone was staring at me said, "Um, let's go."

She grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of my seat and away from the bonfire. Once we were out of range from all the other campers she whirled me around and kissed me. Whoa, I was not expecting that! I was so surprised that it took me a second to realize that I should probably pull away. I put my hands against her chest and pushed her gently away.

"I'm sorry." She said as she looked to the ground.

I didn't know what to say. I probably should have thought this through before I told her. Now I have to explain that I don't feel the same way and pray to my dad that she won't tell Percy before I get the chance to tell him myself.

"It's alright. I have to be truthful with you though. I like you, but not that way, just as a friend." I said trying to think of a way to make this better.

She kept looking at the ground but I saw her head shake in a small nod. When Annabeth looked up I saw tear tracks all down her cheeks and my stomach lurched knowing that I had caused them. I quickly took a couple of steps forward and pulled her into a hug.

About two seconds into the hug, she pulled back and said harshly, "I don't need your pity!"

The next thing I know Annabeth is running towards the woods, probably to take solace in her little tree house.

I felt horrible and I needed somebody to talk to before confessing my love to Percy. I decided to see where Rachel was. I figured she would be done with her Oracle stuff by now. I walked towards the Big House to see if she was there. There was no need to ever knock so I just stepped in and found Rachel talking quietly with Chiron on the couch.

I cleared my throat loudly to get their attention and when they both looked up at me I said, "Rachel, can I speak with you?"

She looked at me with a strange expression and replied, "Sure, what's up Nico?"

I looked over at Chiron and said, "Alone please."

I walked over to Rachel and pulled her out of the Big House by her hand and towards my cabin.

"Jeez Nico, that was kind of rude. I was kind of talking about something important with Chiron."

"Well, this is more important." I said not sorry in the least that I had interrupted their important meeting.

"Doubt it." She muttered angrily.

When we got to my room, I told her everything that had happened in the past few days. Her face went from surprise to disbelieving to excitement and finally to annoyance as I told her about what I did to Annabeth.

"You made her cry! That girl is strong; you must have done something really horrible to make her _cry_."

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make her cry, I just wanted her to feel as bad as she made me feel."

"Guys are idiots." Rachel said as she shook her head.

"So are you going to tell Percy how you feel?" She asked.

"Yup." I was starting to get a little nervous now. I mean I know he said he liked me too, but what if I misunderstood him. What if he didn't actually like me? That would suck. Stop, stop psyching yourself out. You can do this Nico.

"Good luck."

I spent the next hour with Rachel trying to figure out how I was going to tell him.

Next stop…Percy.

**Sorry for the cliffy. I couldn't help it. I hope you guys liked this chapter… I tried to make it longer than the last couple of chapters. Again, thank you to all those who reviewed or favorited this story, it means the world to me. Anyways tell me what you thought about this chapter. See ya next chapter! **


	11. Chapter 11

As I made the long walk over to Percy's cabin, I started to get more nervous with every step I took. So far I had almost chickened out twice. The more I thought about it, the more I psyched myself out. I had so much that I wanted to say to him, but what if he didn't like me as much as I liked, no, loved him? What if his was just a stupid elementary kid crush and I was just about to spill my devoted love for him…how would he take that?

Stop. Calm down. I will not let my annoying paranoia get the best of me.

I couldn't go to Percy's cabin dressed like a hobo and looking as I was about to hyperventilate, so I decided I would make a quick stop to my cabin beforehand.

I fumbled around nervously with my keys until I could finally get it through the key hole. I turned the key and stepped inside. I walked over to my dresser and pulled out my favorite black skinny jeans and black collared button up shirt. I took off my musty clothing and replaced it with my new clean ones. Then I fished around in the top drawer to try and find my recently bought purple skinny tie. I pulled it out and pulled off the tag that I had forgotten to take off when I purchased it. As soon as it was on, I went over to my body-length mirror that was sitting by my bed. I looked over my outfit for a minute before I deemed it worthy and then I walked to my bathroom and brushed my hair a little bit just to get the knots out of it. As soon as I was satisfied that my hair didn't resemble a rat's nest anymore, I was finally ready to give away my long kept secret.

I gave myself one last look over in the mirror and then confidently strode out the door. Now that I was out of excuses for procrastination, I had no other choice but to go to Percy's.

I silently glided towards his door when I got to his small porch. I just stood there for a couple of seconds before I realized that I was actually supposed to knock on the door instead of just stand there and look like some sort of creepy stalker. I brought my hand up slowly and contemplated on what I was going to say when he actually opened the door. But before I could even knock on the door, it swung open and there stood Percy looking almost as nervous as I felt.

"Hey." Percy said.

"Hi." I replied a bit awkwardly.

"So what happened to you never knocking when you come to my cabin?" He said as his expression went from nervousness to confidence in a matter of seconds.

"How would you know if I was going to knock, you opened the door before I could even do anything?" I said with a growing smirk on my face.

"Good point, well it would be anyways, if I hadn't seen you standing at the door for like five minutes." His teasing smile grew as my facial expression took on one of embarrassment.

"Ugh, whatever. Are you gonna invite me in or are we just going to stand here?"

"Enter madam." He said as he spread his arms for me to come in.

"What the hell? I know you did _not_ just call me madam!" He started to shake uncontrollably with laughter so I punched him in the arm. He looked at me with a pouty face after I hit him. It was such an adorable face that I almost told him right then and there, but I had to do this the way I had planned so long for.

As soon as he finished with his fits of laughter, he said, "Sorry, I had to. It's just so fun to tease you."

I raised my eyebrow at him. Tease? I _was_ going to do this the easy way and just tell him but now I think I'll just tease him a little, since he likes teasing so much. This should be good.

We both walked into his cabin and to my relief, Tyson wasn't there. That would have been a little awkward.

"Gods Perce, your room is a mess." I said trying to make conversation until I was ready to reveal anything.

"Sorry," Percy said in a tone that made you think he was a twelve year old girl with a huge attitude. "I didn't know I was gonna have company."

"Jeez, I wish these cabins came with air conditioners." I said.

"I know, its freaking hot in here."

"Do you mind if I take my shirt off?"

He looked down at his feet and said, "Sure, go ahead."

I grinned to myself and said, "Thanks, I just don't want to ruin my new shirt with gross sweat."

He chuckled and sat down on his bed. He motioned for me to sit next to him.

I sat down and took off my skinny tie. I then started to unbutton my shirt and when I was done, I felt Percy stiffen to the left of me.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "I'm not that hideous am I?"

I started to put my shirt back on making him think that I thought I had offended him. He put a hand on top of mine and said, "Oh shut up Nico, you know you're hot, and if you don't then you must have like zero self-esteem."

I was gaping at him as he said this. A moment later he seemed to realize exactly what he had said and started to turn a deep shade of red.

"Uh-um, that's not what I meant! I just meant that you are a good looking guy and you don't have to put yourself down like that."

"Now I'm kind of offended. I liked your first answer." I said as I slowly inched forward. Our faces were merely inches apart now. Percy's breath hitched in his throat as he stared at Nico with wide eyes.

I leaned forward more, but instead of kissing him, I turned my head and stood off the bed.

"So Percy, anything you want to tell me?" It was a vague question but I got the feeling he was ready to spill.

"Um, what exactly do you want to know?" This was starting to sound like an interrogation.

I drew close to him and leaned down close to his ear. "Don't play dumb Percy." I practically purred his name. I could see a shiver run down his muscled frame.

"D-did Annabeth tell you?" He asked in an alarmed and somewhat angry voice. Mentioning Annabeth right now was so not a turn on.

"Don't be such a woos Perce. Tell me what's been bothering you."

"Okay, but you have to promise not to freak out…"

"Of course I won't." I said assuringly.

"Um, well, I kind of…"

"You kind of what?" I said nudging him along.

"I'm not really sure but ithinkisortoflikeyou." Percy said the last part so fast that the only word I could make out was 'like'.

"What was that? Sorry, I couldn't hear you." Aw, let the teasing begin.

"Aw, come on Nico, don't make me say it again!"

"If you had spoken a little clearer maybe you wouldn't have to repeat it." I said, even though I already knew the gist of what he had said.

He stared down at his hands while he talked, "I…kind of have maybe a little bit of a crush…on you." He said the last part so quietly that I almost thought I had been imagining it. I tried so hard not to laugh because it was just so like Percy to use the middle school term of having a crush.

I waited for a couple of seconds for Percy to look at me and see that I was smiling. Poor guy probably thought that I would be disgusted or something. When he didn't look up I brought my hand to his chin and lifted it up so that we were both face to face. Instead of telling him that I felt the same way, I decided I'd show him.

I leaned down and slowly pressed my lips against his. I gently started to tilt my head for easier access to his mouth and I realized he wasn't responding to the kiss. He was probably in shock that this was even happening, so I pulled back. The second I did though, he pulled me into another kiss; this time, we both participated in it. I rubbed my hands up and down his back as he gripped my hair. The kiss felt so desperate, yet so soft and tender. I ran my tongue along Percy's bottom lip and he opened his mouth to deepen the kiss.

Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! I was totally making out with Percy…son of Poseidon and savior of Olympus! This was seriously one of the best days of my life.

Percy moaned as I brushed my hand under the hem of his shirt. The sound was the sexiest thing I had ever heard. I drew my hand further up his bare back so that I could hear another one of his delicious moans.

We finally pulled away because of lack of air. He looks at me with a confused expression plastered on his face.

"Hold on a minute, I didn't know you were gay." He said.

"Uh duh. Are you really that freaking oblivious?"

"That's hurtful." He had a cute pout on his face when he said this.

"I've liked you for years now, I'm allowed to call you oblivious." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Years! How come you never told me?"

"I thought you would be disgusted and not even want to be my friend anymore."

"Damn, and to think I could have been kissing you for _years_…" Percy said with a regretful look on his face.

"Wait a minute, how did you know?" He asked.

I felt my cheeks redden as I said, "Oh, yeah about that…"

"Nico?" Percy asked in a what-did-you-do-this-time tone.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just wanted to go take another look at that tree house and when I got closer to it, I saw you step down from the ladder. I was going to confront you about it, 'cause I had seen the drawings in it earlier, but that was when Annabeth came strolling in and I decided to stay where I was."

"Wait, you know about the tree house?" he relied with an astonished look on his face.

"Yeah, and I would have thought it was yours except that the majority of the pictures that were drawn were of me. That completely stumped me, so when I heard that it was Annabeth that liked me I was beyond shocked. To hear that you liked me too, I was beyond happy. To make sure you actually liked me, I put you through a couple of tests, and finally saw all of the signs."

"What signs?" He asked.

"Well, you blush… a lot." I said with a grin. As if on cue, Percy's cheeks turned pink. "You also looked sad when I stopped hugging you, which I thought would be strange that person would be sad that their friend stopped hugging them."

"Wow, you're…observant."

"Thanks, I try." I said with an accomplished smile.

Percy was biting his lip now and if he didn't quit it, Nico wouldn't be able to refrain himself from attacking Percy's incredibly sexy pout with his own mouth.

"What's wrong Perce?"

"Um, you're making it incredibly hard for me to concentrate with your shirt off." He said sheepishly.

I smirked. I scooted closer to him on the bed and leaned down towards him. I whispered into his ear, "What about now?"

He shivered and said, "What were we talking about?"

I chuckled lightly and closed the gap between us. The light feathery touch of our lips made me shudder. Percy wrapped his arms around my bare back and pulled me closer so that our bodies were flush against each other. When I went to pull back, he whined and fisted my hair to keep my lips locked with his. Like the last kiss, we had to pull back for air this time also.

"Hey can you do me a favor?" I asked Percy.

"Sure."

"Can you call me…Neeks? Not like all the time, just occasionally." I could feel my face burning

Percy's smile got even wider if that was possible. "I thought you hated it when I called you that?"

"That was when I didn't know that you liked me; it was torture because when you said it, it sounded incredibly hot and did nothing good for my hormones." I was sure my face was on fire by now.

"Of course, I'd be honored to call you that, _Neeks_." I almost melted under his warm gaze as he said this.

**Oh my gods, I'm sooo sorry for the super long wait. This was so hard for me to write for some reason and I kept feeling like I was going to mess this chapter up. Your reviews and favoriting makes me so happy! Thank you to all those who have supported this fic so far with all your awesome reviews, favoriting, alerting and PMing! Please tell me what you thought of this chapter. See ya next chapter! **


	12. Chapter 12

I slipped the note under Percy's cabin door and made my way towards the dining pavilion to meet Rachel. The note read:

_Percy,_

_Meet me at the Pegasus's stables at 2pm. Need to talk._

_Love, Nico_

I wrote and erased the last part about a billion times trying to figure out the most appropriate to end the letter. I finally just decided on 'love' because I figured Percy wouldn't mind or think too much of it. I felt kind of stupid writing a letter to him instead of just asking him in person, but I didn't want to come across as clingy. Also, it just seems more mysterious with the letter.

By the time I got to my table, Rachel was already there. Percy and I hadn't told anyone about us yet, so Rachel didn't even know about it. That's part of the reason I came to eat lunch with her; I wanted her to be the first to know.

"Hey Nico."

"Hi Rachel. How has my favorite Oracle's day been?"

"Ugh, don't call me that." She said with a look of disgust, but her eyes betrayed that she was just joking. "It's been kind of dull actually. How about you? Anything interesting happen? Maybe you could help me with my chronic boredom."

"Actually yes, something very interesting has happened to me." I said with a wide grin.

"Ooo spill. I want all the deets." She said with a look of hunger in her eyes. Wow, I really have been neglecting my best friend if she looks this desperate for any interesting news. Poor thing.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone yet, okay?" She mimicked closing a zipper on her mouth and then threw the invisible key away. "I kissed Percy!"

I could see the look of doubt on her face. "What? He kissed me back!" I said a little too loud.

"Oh my gods Nico, are you serious?" She said and started to squeal while jumping up and down.

"One hundred percent serious; finally I don't have to hide in the shadows of best friend status." I said as she finally believed me.

"That's so-o-o-o cute! You have to invite me over when he is at your cabin. I want to see how cute of a couple you two make. There better be lots of scrumptious boy kisses!"

"Creeper much?" I said trying to hold back a laugh. "I'm not exactly sure what we are at the moment. We didn't exactly specify if we were boyfriends or not."

"Well you better specify soon, because I did not endure countless hours of you complaining about him, for you to find out that he likes you and do nothing about it."

"Okay, okay jeez. It's not the end of the world. I told him to meet up with me later so that we can talk about…stuff."

"That sounds kind of sketchy." Rachel said with a smile on her face.

"Gods, Rach, you're such a perv!" I said close to laughing.

"Ugh, I am nothing of the sort." She said in a high voice with her noise in the air.

Just then I heard the big grandfather clock from the Big House. The clock struck once and then twice. _Crap_. I'm late. I got up quickly and apologized to Rachel for having to leave too early.

She replied with, "No problem. Have fun with your little _chat_ with Percy." She was grinning ear to ear as she held up finger quotes while she said the word 'chat'.

I shook my head and chuckled. "Seriously Rach, you gotta get your mind out of the gutter."

She just winked at me in response. I seriously wonder what goes on in that head of hers.

I walked briskly over to the stables. I could just shadow-travel there but I decided I didn't want to drain myself right before seeing Percy. Percy was never good with being punctual so I was hoping that he wouldn't have shown up yet.

I stepped into the barn and saw that Percy was already there waiting with his back turned towards me. Well, so much for tardiness.

He must have heard me enter because he turned around and said, "I thought you were going to stand me up."

I dipped my head down to hide the shame written across my face.

"Aw come on Neeks, I was just joking. No need to look so sad." I looked up to see that Percy was smiling. All my guilt immediately washed away. We just stood there for a minute staring at each other before anybody said anything.

Percy cleared his throat and said, "So what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

I tugged on a lock of my hair, starting to feel my nerves bubble back up.

"Um…well…I just wanted to know," I paused for a moment, "what are we?" I asked gesturing between the two of us.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I should have made that more clear yesterday." Percy said. "Nico, would you please do me the honors of being my boyfriend?" if anyone else had said this, it would have sounded cheesy, but when Percy said it, it sounded kind of hot. The way he gazed at me with such intensity made my heartbeat speed up until it felt like my chest was going to explode.

I blushed deeply and said, "Of course."

He smiled. His wonderful sea-green eyes lighted up as I replied.

"Um, Percy, can I ask you a favor?" I said reluctantly.

"Sure, anything."

"Okay, I'm kind of old-fashioned," I said with my fingers back in my hair, "so I was wondering if we could maybe get your mom to approve of us before we tell anyone?"

He laughed and ran his hand through his hair. "Okay, when do you want to go see her?"

"I was thinking maybe in a couple of days."

"Um, I don't think I could wait that long, how about tomorrow night?"

"That's perfect. But, don't you have to teach a sword training class the next day?"

"Yeah, hmmmm… I'll just get Clarisse to cover my shift. She owes me anyways."

I shot him a questioning look, but he just winked and got up to leave. I turned around to head back to my cabin as well. I felt Percy pull on my wrist and I spun around only to find very welcome lips pressed against mine. I moaned into the kiss and he took the opportunity to push his tongue into my mouth. Our tongues battled it out for a few minutes until we both broke apart and gasped for air. I leaned against his chest as he leaned back against the wall.

"I could get used to that." I said through big gulps of air. Percy's chest was quickly going up and down as if he had just run a marathon.

"Where did you learn to kiss like that?" he said and looked at me in awe.

"Well, you're the only person I have ever kissed so I'm just gonna take a wild guess here and say I learned it from you…although, it could just be that I'm naturally a good kisser." I said before adding another soft kiss to his already swollen lips.

"If I really am the only one you've ever kissed, which I don't believe, then you really are a natural." I blushed an intense red as he said this.

"Um, how do I respond to that…thanks?"

"Oh, my pleasure." He said.

"I think we should keep testing out whether you're a natural or not." Percy said, looking at my lips the entire time he was talking.

"Well, we really have to get back to our activities before anyone notices we're gone." I said trying not to give in as Percy gave me his most adorable puppy dog face ever.

"Don't do that to me Perce, we really should get back." He kept staring at me with those huge beautiful eyes. "Fine, two more minutes, then we have to get back to work."

**First off, again, for the thousandth time, I am really sorry for the long wait! Secondly, I am sorry for the huge amount of fluff in this chapter…I don't know how all that mushiness got in there. So next chapter we will be revisiting Sally's apartment and hopefully a little angst will sneak its way into that chapter. Thank you guys for all your reviews and favs and alerts…they always brighten up my day :-) Tell me what you thought of this chap. Thank you very much for sticking with this story even though I am a huge procrastinator! See ya next chap! **

**Also, special thanks to: allwrong4life, mudkipluvr4ever, XTheSonofHadesX, Rasiaa, Goddess of the Multiverses, Reining3, Miette in the Rain, EvilPlotBunnysRuleMyMind, Brasta Septim, PJOHG333, and all the anon reviewers for reviewing on my last chapter! Luv you guys, thnx:)**


	13. Chapter 13

I woke up to something tickling my ear. I opened my eyes to find Percy's mouth close to my ear.

"Time to wake up sleepy head."

Percy and I had gotten to Sally's apartment late last night. I shadow traveled us here so all my energy drained by the time we had gotten here.

"Duz urmum knewlwere here?" I asked in a very tired voice that Percy probably didn't understand.

Percy laughed. "Try opening your mouth when you talk."

"I could find better uses for opening my mouth." I said and smirked as Percy blushed.

"Anyways, as I was saying, does your mom know we are here?"

"Yeah, right after you passed out she came into my room to put some clothes in my closet and found me sitting down at the desk and you snoring in my bed. She almost decked me 'cause she thought I was a burglar." He said laughing lightly. The thought of Sally punching Percy made me almost regret that she hadn't, with me watching of course.

Pushing those…amusing thoughts away, I asked, "You didn't tell her yet, did you? About us." I clarified.

"No, not yet." He said looking excited. Only Percy would be excited about telling their mom he was gay _and_ that he was dating the son of _Hades_.

"Good because I want to be there when you tell her." I said.

"Me? Oh no, this is all you. You're the one that wanted my mom's approval, so you are the one that is going to get it. _Not_ me." He said looking very proud of himself.

"Can't we both do it?" I asked.

"Nope."

"Aww, please!" I whined and tried my best puppy dog face, although im not sure how well a puppy dog face would work for a son of the god of Hell.

He just laughed and said, "I am immune to your cuteness."

"Ugh, I can't believe you just called me _cute_." I murmured under my breath, "Gods, where has my manliness gone?"

He smirked at me. His big sea green eyes almost made me give in. _Almost_.

I stepped really close to him and brought my face to the side of his head. Our chests were pressed against each other. I placed my hand on his belt and brushed my fingertips along the exposed skin just under the hem of his shirt. I felt him shiver just before lightly whispered into his ear, "Please babe, for me?"

I could feel him hesitate. He just stood there for a couple of seconds after I pulled away. Finally he shook himself out of the temporary spell he was under and said a very firm, "No."

"Ugh, fine." I said looking at him in disgust.

"You just can't wait for me to make a fool out of myself." I said. "You know how awkward I am. I've never even done this before."

"Done what before?"

"Dated anyone."

"I still do not understand how that is even possible." Percy said, leaving a faint blush on my cheeks. "And as for awkward, wouldn't you rather my mom see you as awkward than some slut that's just trying to get into my pants?"

"Okay, you're seriously just trying to make this more awkward for me than it has to be, aren't you?"

"Yup, you're so very fun to tease."

"Yeah, so are you," I said laughing, "you should have seen your face when I tried to convince you to tell her with me.

Percy blushed and punched me lightly on the arm. "Gods your such a tease!"

"I deserve to be a tease sometimes, after the pain I've endured from watching you and Annabeth suck face for a year now." Percy's face lowered a bit as I said this. "Crap, I'm sorry Perce. I thought you were over her."

He looked up with a panicked look on his face. "I am over her! I'm just sad that you had to see that when all that time all I wanted was for her to be you."

My heart beat sped up as he said this. I don't think anyone has ever been this nice to me. The last person to ever care about me like this was Bianca. My mood suddenly saddened as I thought of my dead sister. I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I threw my arms around Percy in a gigantic bear hug. I hadn't thought about Bianca much lately, and my thoughts of her now were very strong as if her death was just yesterday. I sobbed softly into Percy's shoulder as he rubbed my back soothingly and whispered comforting things in my ear. After a couple of minutes, when I had finally calmed down, he asked me what was wrong.

"I-I m-miss her so much." He seemed to know who I was talking about instantly.

He sensed I needed some alone time and said, "Why don't you go ahead and take a shower while I go help mom with breakfast?"

I nodded and headed towards the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and wiped all my tears away. I turned on the shower and waited for it to heat up while I got my clothes and towel from the bedroom.

The moment I stepped into the warm water, I felt my muscles start to relax. I just stood there getting drenched until the smell of bacon and eggs wafted under the closed bathroom door. My stomach growled suddenly and I realized how hungry I was. After that I washed up as quickly as I could and dried off. I pulled on my black skinny jeans and purple graphic tee. Then I slipped on my black Converse to finish the outfit off. I checked myself in the mirror and fixed wild strands of my hair before I walked out into the kitchen to where Percy was bent down in the fridge looking for something and Sally was stirring the scrambled eggs. Mr. Blofis was sitting on a stool at the counter looking like one of those classically depicted fathers with his coffee in one hand and his newspaper in the other. I stood there awkwardly for a moment before I heard Sally talk.

"Nico! Its so nice to have you over again. How long will you guys be staying this time?"

"Not too long. I don't want to be a bother to you." I said politely.

"Oh Nico, you could never be a bother to us. We always love to have you here." She said with a kind smile that showed what she said was true.

"Thank you Mrs. Blofis." I said.

"Sweetie, call me Sally remember. Missus just makes me sound old." I laughed at her theory.

"Food's almost ready." Percy spoke for the first time since I entered the kitchen.

"Mmm, it smells delicious." I said reaching for my stomach subconsciously. A second later my stomach gave off an enormous and very embarrassing growl.

"Haha sounds like someone is hungry." Percy said.

"Yeah, sorry. Just another…lovely effect of shadow-traveling." I said and winked at Percy. The tip of his ears got noticeably redder when I said that.

Paul looked over his newspaper and said, "Fascinating, so how does shadow-travel work?"

…OoO…

After I was done eating and explaining the complex ways of shadow-travel, Paul finally left. Now it was just me, Perce and his mom. I was fidgeting with nervousness by now. I was going to have to tell her soon and ask if she thought it was okay for us to be dating.

"I'm gonna go take a shower and brush my teeth." Percy said as he stretched his arms behind his head with a large yawn. Oh no, he was leaving me.

Sally's back was turned as Percy leaned over towards my ear and whispered, "Now's your chance."

I gently shoved his face away with a light scowl on my lips. He chuckled and headed towards the bedroom.

I sighed. "Sally?"

Well, here goes nothing.

**Sorry for making this chapter sort of a filler chapter. The next chapter will hopefully be out pretty soon. I just wanted to thank you guys sooo much for reviewing, favoriting and alerting! When I saw that the reviews got to 100 I did a happy dance and started screaming…so thank you very much for reviewing, it means so much to me. Tell me what you think of this chapter. See ya next chap!**


	14. Chapter 14

"Yes Nico?" She turned around to face me from where she stood with her coffee and blue muffin in hand.

"Um...this is really hard to ask, but, is it…" Sally smiled. Some sort of excitement shown in her eyes as if she knew what I was going to ask before I even asked her.

"It's okay Nico, you can ask me anything." Something about the tone of her voice made me feel safe.

"I was wondering if you would approve of me dating your son." I was sure my face looked like a tomato by now.

"Oh my goodness, finally! Yes, I one hundred percent approve." I was more excited than shocked to hear Sally say this.

"Wait, what do you mean by 'finally'?"

"Well it's just that you two are the most oblivious kids I've ever met. I've known you two liked each other for about a year by now. And if I'm not mistaken, you've liked him for quite a bit longer than that." I nodded.

"Why didn't you tell Percy if you knew all that time?" I asked her, a little disappointed that she hadn't.

"I had to let him get there himself. I can't always baby him." She said with a regretful look on her face.

After a moment of silence, her frown turned into a smile quite like Rachel's when I had first told her the good news. "So how did it happen?"

"Well, I found out that he liked me when I was roaming the woods and I heard Annabeth and him getting into a fight. I went to see what the problem was and heard them say something about me. I maybe sort of kind of eavesdropped on the rest of their conversation. Anyways, long story short: I found out they were both using each other to get to me, I confronted both of them, and I chose Percy."

"Aw, poor Annabeth, she's a sweet girl." Sally said looking very much intrigued. "How'd she take it?"

"Um, actually I don't really know. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen her since I told her that I just wanted to be friends."

"Don't you have classes or activities with her at camp?" Sally asked looking worried.

"Yes, I have Greek and sword training with her. She probably just doesn't want to see me. You know how proud Annabeth can be."

"Yes, but it's not like her to run away from her problems."

"You're right, maybe I should talk to Percy about this. He'll probably know what make of the situation better than we do."

"Talk to me about what?" Percy said as he walked through his bedroom door with only a pair of jeans on.

"I haven't seen Annabeth since the day I told her that I knew she had a crush on me." I said trying to avert my eyes anywhere but his perfectly toned abs.

"Don't you have some of the same activities as her?"

"Yeah, but she hasn't shown up to them in the past couple of days."

'Maybe she just needed some time to cool off." Percy said. He didn't sound concerned, so I decided I wouldn't worry about it too much.

…OoO…

"You want to go for a walk in Central Park?" Percy asked me while we were lounging on his couch watching _Hide and Seek. _

I could tell Percy would have rather been doing anything besides watching this horror movie. Every time there was a scary part I would turn to look at him and see his hands clutching at the couch cushions and him trying to look everywhere but the TV screen.

I turned around slowly and began to manipulate the shadows to close in on us. Percy looked as if he was about to start screaming in a second, so I took mercy on him and willed the shadows back to normal.

"On second thought," He said. "I think I'll go on my own."

I laughed at his comment and stood up. "But don't you need someone to protect you from creepy multi-personality dads that try to kill their kids?" I said it with such a serious face that I could tell he was seriously contemplating it. I laughed and grabbed his hand. I pulled him out the apartment and down towards the streets. Once we were down there, Percy seemed to finally gain some control.

We walked down the street hand in hand, which was totally new for me, and a bit nerve-wracking. Once I realized that nobody was staring or whispering, my nerves started to recede. Thank gods for New York City! Nobody even cared that there were two guys holding hands in public. I was sure that this was not going to be the case back at Camp Halfblood.

When we finally made it to Central Park, it wasn't awkward or anything. We just walked in a comfortable silence. About ten minutes into our walk, Percy's stomach growled loudly. We stopped into a small pizza place. I ordered sausage and jalapeños on my pizza, and Percy ordered pepperoni on his.

We sat down at a small table just outside the restaurant on the small patio to eat.

"How do you eat that?" Percy asked me with his eyebrow raised.

"How do I eat what?"

"Jalapeños."

I smirked. "Someone's a sissy." I smiled as his lips formed a frown. "Can't take the heat?"

"Oh yeah, here, give me one of them." He held his hand out and I placed one of my jalapeños in it.

"Are you sure about this Perce? I don't want to have to call your mom and explain to her that her son has an owie on his tongue. I'm pretty sure that would not earn me any points with her."

"Shut it Grim Reaper." I pretended to look offended when he called me that.

He popped the pepper into his mouth. He chewed it hesitantly then let out a pained moan. He flew off his seat in an instant. He ran so fast back into the restaurant that he knocked over an old lady on his way in. He didn't even stop to look back as he shoved her back against the wall. He rushed to the front of the line, ignoring all the complaints he was getting, and asked for a cup of water. As soon as he got it, he chugged it in one gulp. I was laughing so hard that I had to try very hard not to fall off my seat. As soon as he had calmed down he came back over to the table and glared at me.

"What, I didn't make you eat it. In fact, I warned you not to."

"Jeez, what the hell do they do to those things to make them so spicy?"

"Nothing Perce, they're just vegetables."

He gave a pouty face and said, "I hate vegetables."

I coughed loudly and said the word "wuss" at the same time. He glared over at me for a second before we both burst out laughing.

"Hey Percy, what's up my man?" A voice interrupted our laughing session.

Percy and I turned towards the voice. I froze with terror as soon as I saw who it was.

**Sorry for the cliffy…I just had to. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Hopefully I can get the next chapter out within the next week. Thank you again for all the comments :) Tell me what you thought of this chap. See ya next chapter! **


	15. Chapter 15

"Hey Kyle! What are you doing here? I thought you moved to Maryland." Percy said as he got up to greet his friend.

"I did, I just came back to visit my grandparents for the week. I went over to your house a couple of days ago to see if you were home, but your mom said that you were at that camp you always used to talk about." I sat there, frozen and prayed to Hades that the boy wouldn't recognize me. This was the boy that had sent me crying back to camp that awful day that I had spent at Percy's apartment. He had called me a horrible name and at the time I hadn't quite accepted that I was gay, so the fact that he knew before I even did scared me. I was afraid he was going to tell Percy but thankfully he didn't.

Now it was the same thing all over again. Fear raced through my veins. I tried to keep from running back to the apartment. I didn't even know why I was so scared. I mean, Percy already knew I was gay, so why did it matter if Kyle said anything about that horrible day? Keeping that in mind, I tried to calm myself down. So far the guy hadn't even looked at me. Even if he did, he probably wouldn't recognize me. I had only seen him once and that only lasted for about ten minutes. I had changed a lot since then.

"So what's it like in Maryland?" I heard Percy ask as I zoned back into their conversation.

"It's alright, but it's nothing compared to good old NYC. It's nice to be back, even if it's only for a few days." He said. It was strange seeing Kyle like this, when the only memory that I had of him was that of cruelty.

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot to introduce you two to each other." Percy said and looked over at me. "Kyle this is my friend from camp, Nico; Nico this is Kyle." He said pointing at us respectively. I hurt me that Percy had only introduced me as his friend, and not his boyfriend.

"Oh yes, I think we've met before." Kyle said. He turned to Percy and said, "You still hang out with this fag?" The look on Percy's face was absolutely priceless. The next thing I see is Percy shoving Kyle against the wall of the restaurant.

"What did you just call him?" Percy said enough venom to scare Hades himself.

"Woah, dude, calm down." Kyle said with his hands raised in the air.

Then he was on the ground with blood pouring out of his nose. Percy was standing over him roughly rubbing his knuckles.

"Don't talk about him that way…ever again." Percy said in a low and commanding voice that reminded me of his father's.

The whole time this had happened, I had been sitting in my chair just gaping at all that had happened.

Percy walked over to me and grabbed my hand. He pulled me out of my chair and started to pull me toward the sidewalk. We started to make our way back to the apartment, but only made it a couple of steps outside the restaurant's patio area before a police officer came out from inside the restaurant. He approached us quickly.

"You're gonna have to come with me kid." He said referring to Percy. He grabbed Percy by the arm and started to lead him towards the black and white car parked near the side of the crowded street. Percy didn't even struggle. He just nodded and kept his head down. I didn't know what to do. Was I supposed to just go back to his apartment and tell Sally that Percy was down to the station?

I decided I would just go to the police station myself to see how much trouble Percy was in. I didn't think he would appreciate it if I told his mom on him.

I signaled for a taxi and hopped in. I asked for the nearest police station after realizing I didn't exactly know which station Percy would be going to. When I arrived at the station, I went up to the counter and spotted a lady with a nametag that said 'Rayne'. I cleared my throat loudly to get her attention. She looked up from the paperwork she was working on and asked, "May I help you?"

"Um, yes, do you happen to know if someone by the name of Percy Jackson is here?" I asked hopefully.

"Hold on a minute. Let me check if we have anyone booked by that name." She said as she typed something into the computer in front of her with lightning fast fingers.

"Thank you." I said, trying not to stare at her piercing blue eyes as she searched her database.

Her capturing eyes scanned the screen in front of her. "Yes, he came in about ten minutes ago. What's your relation with him?"

"He's my boyfriend." I said. If she minded, she didn't show it.

"Okay. Do you just want to visit him, because he isn't allowed visitors yet. He is going through processing as we speak."

"No, I wanted to know how much bail is for him." I said, still trying not to look into her eyes. Her eyes were so blue that they were distracting.

"Aren't you a little young to be paying somebodies bail?" She looked at me skeptically.

"No, is there some sort of age limit?" I said a little harsher than I had intended.

"Yes actually, he's still a minor. He needs parental permission to be released on bail." She said either not registering or not responding to my cruel tone.

"Oh." I looked down at my feet, suddenly remorseful that I had snapped at her for questioning the validity of my being able to bail him out.

"We have a phone you could use if you maybe want to call his parents for help." She offered.

I thought about it for a moment. On one hand, I didn't want to rat him out, because I knew Sally wouldn't be too happy if she found out her son was in juvie, but on the other hand, I couldn't think of another way to get him out of there.

"Thank you," I said as I grabbed the phone. Instead of dialing Sally's number though, I dialed Persephone's number.

It rang for a few seconds before a sweet sounding voice filled my ears.

"Hello, who is it?"

"Hi Persephone, it's Nico. Is my dad with you?"

"Yes. Is there something wrong sweetie?" Ugh, I hate when she calls me that.

I gritted my teeth and said, "Yes, may I speak to my dad?"

"Fine, here you go."

I heard whispering and then, "Nico."

"Um, hi. I was wondering if you could help me with a little problem I'm having."

"Where are your manners boy? If you want a favor form me, the least you can do is ask me face to face." I could tell he wasn't going to change his mind on this.

"Be there in a few." I hung up not bothering with unnecessary parting words.

I thanked Rayne and then walked quickly out of the station. I looked around for a place where I could shadow travel without being noticed. My eyes came across a small ally a couple of blocks down the street. I jogged over to the ally and stepped into the shadows. A second later I stepped out into a dark and damp cave. I walked in the direction of my father's palace. I stepped in front of the gates to the dark mansion. After passing through many small tunnels and hallways, I finally got to the black grimy doors that were guarded by dead warriors. I nodded at them. They seemed to understand that I needed to get into the room and felt that I was a son of Hades so they stepped aside to let me pass. The room was poorly lit and there were shadows everywhere. My dad sat at the far side of the room on his throne made of tortured souls. He wore long, dark, gray robes and his stern face made everything even more eerie than it already was.

I walked closer to him and bowed before him. He nodded his cold greeting.

"Can I ask you a favor please?" I asked hesitantly.

"Depends." Hades' deep voice rang out through the room. "What is it that you need?"

I looked at the ground as I tried to figure out how to word this. I hadn't yet told my dad about Percy. "Um…Percy is in juvie and I need your help to get him out."

His eyes narrowed at me, "Why would you want to help Jackson?"

"He's my friend." I said, failing mention the "boy' in front of it.

"I can tell when you're lying to me. What do you take me as, a fool? Why is the real reason you want to help him?" My dad glared at me as he said this. I knew I had to tell him the truth eventually, but I didn't think that time would come so soon.

"He um…he is my uh…" I stuttered, trying to fight my nerves.

"He's your what Nico? Stop stuttering and spit it out!"

"Hesmyboyfriend." I said as quickly as I could.

"English please."

I sighed and said a bit clearer, "He's my boyfriend."

Hades shifted a little uncomfortably around in his throne. Then his expression turned to stone. "Jackson? I would have thought that any son of mine would have had better taste. Apparently I was wrong."

I cracked a smile as he said this. Sure the words were a bit mean, but they meant that he had at least accepted it.

"So can you help?" I asked a bit impatiently.

"What will you do for me in return?" Hades asked with a deceitful grin.

"How about I…clean Cerberus's erm, droppings for a month?" I grimaced just thinking about it; if this gets Percy out of juvie, then he so owes me.

"Hmm...Tell me what it is that I will need to do, then I will consider helping."

I explained to him my plan of bailing Percy out of juvie without actually getting his parents involved. Afterwards he said, "Fine, we have a deal."

…OoO…

My dad walked through the doors of New York City Juvenile Hall looking exactly like Paul Blofis. He walked up to the woman at the front desk and said, "Hello," He looked down at her nametag, "Rayne. I'm here to pick up my son, Percy Jackson."

"Oh, um, let me see what his status is. Okay, I'm going to need you to sign a few papers and pay the fine for his assault charges." She said.

"That's fine. How much is the fine?"

"Two thousand dollars. We don't except cash so you will either have to pay with a credit card, debit card or make a check out to the city's Juvenile Hall." She said sweetly despite how crappy the situation was.

"Do you take Visas?" Pseudo-Paul asked in his low voice.

"Yes we do." She said while he handed her the thin plastic card. "Thank you very much, he'll be free to go after you sign these three documents showing that you payed for his release and picked him up."

She handed back the card and gave him the pages. As soon as he was done signing, she led him to the back room where Percy was sitting on a blue chair waiting. He looked confused to see me with his dad standing before him.

"Paul?"

"Come Percy," was all my dad said in reply.

He nodded and followed us out of the station despite his confusion. Once we were outside, Paul simultaneously morphed into Hades. Percy was so startled that he had Riptide out in the blink of an eye and pointed the tip of it at the center of my dad's chest.

"Not a very nice way to treat someone who just got you out of trouble," Hades said in his deep rumbling voice. Percy immediately pulled back and lowered his head.

"Hades? Why would you help me?" Percy said cautiously as if he thought a harpy was going to attack him at any moment on my dad's orders.

"Let's just say that my son must really like you." The tip of my ears started to turn pink as he said this. Percy's face contorted with confusion, but he didn't ask any more questions.

"Thank you," Percy said.

"I didn't do it for you, I did it for Nico." Hades said sharply.

"Still, thank you for getting me out of juvie," Percy said.

It was silent for a moment before my dad said, "How'd you get in there anyways?"

"I punched some jerk that called Nico um…a not very nice word." Something flashed in Hades eyes for a second than was gone. What had that been, appreciation? Admiration?

Hades awkwardly rubbed his arm and said, "Well you two have…fun I guess. Don't forget our deal Nico," and with that he vanished.

Percy looked over at me curiously, "What deal is he talking about?"

"Let's just say that I'll be picking up a lot of monster crap for a while." He laughed and pulled me into a tight embrace.

"Thank you, it's not everyday that somebody makes a deal with the devil to get me out of juvie." I chuckled at the corniness of the expression he had just used.

"Try not to be too flattered, I did this for Sally as well. Do you know how upset she would have been if she had found out that you had managed to get yourself into juvie?"

"I know," he said, looking down at his feet, "it's just that Kyle has been my friend for more than two years now and I can't believe I didn't see how much of a jerk he was. I know I shouldn't have punched him, but he really got to me, you know?"

"If you ask me it was kind of hot. Seeing you get all tough and defensive like that." I said with a smirk as Percy's face flushed.

"Yeah well don't get used to it." He said with a wide grin.

Percy held out his hand and said, "Come on, I think we should head back to the apartment."

I took his hand and we started down the streets of New York City, to the rusty little apartment complex.

…OoO…

"Percy, Nico thank God you're here!" Sally exclaimed as soon as we walked through the front doors.

"What's wrong mom?" Percy looked pale as he asked.

"Chiron Irised me; Annabeth is missing."

…OoO…

I shadow traveled us back to camp and we went straight to the Big House to find Chiron. We jogged across the threshold and came to an abrupt stop in front of the familiar wheelchair.

"We came as soon as we heard the news. Is there anything we can do to help?" Percy said out of breath.

"Yes actually there is. I'm sending the two of you and Clarisse on a quest to find Annabeth. There have been some strange things happening around camp that nobody knows about, and I would appreciate it if it would stay like that once I fill you three in." He stared at us expectantly until we both nodded in agreement.

"Would you two go find Clarisse for me and meet me back here in ten minutes so we can discuss the details of your quest?" Chiron asked but didn't wait to hear the answer as he wheeled away quickly calling Rachel's name.

Percy and I walked outside to go find Clarisse.

"Joy, a quest with Clarisse. How could this possibly go wrong?" Percy muttered sarcastically.

"Will you stop whining and focus on the reason we're going on the quest in the first place?" I asked impatiently. Annabeth was gone and all Percy could think about was that he was being forced to be on a quest with Clarisse. Where's the logic in that for gods' sakes!

He glared at me but didn't say another word as we searched for Clarisse. We soon found her in the Ares cabin cleaning the tip of her spear.

"Clarisse," I said, "Chiron wants you at the Big House now."

"Why?" She said, looking at us suspiciously.

"He wants to talk to the three of us." Percy stated.

We got a few weird looks from the other kids in the room. She thought about it for a moment before getting up and walking outside.

"Do you two know what's happening?" Clarisse asked.

"Yes, but I don't think Chiron would be too happy if we said anything about it out in the open. I think he doesn't want the whole camp panicking." I said to her quietly glancing around me to make sure no one was eavesdropping.

She sighed, "Fine."

Chiron wheeled his way through the doors of the Big House about five minutes after they had returned with Clarisse. He turned to her and said, "Clarisse, I have summoned you to inform you that you will be joining a quest with Mr. di Angelo and Mr. Jackson. Annabeth has gone missing and I have a hunch that she didn't just run away. Miss Dare agrees with me. Your quest starts tomorrow, so as soon as I've finished explaining all the details of little incidents that have transpired throughout the last week or so, you may go prepare to leave. I do not expect this quest to be short in any way, so pack heavy and don't forget to bring ambrosia and nectar," he said gravely. "Now for the details…"

**So I tried to make this chapter pretty long to make up for all the time it took for me to update. I hope you guys can forgive me! I was on a pretty long vacation so there was hardly any time for me to write. Anyways, I appreciate all your reviews, follows and favorites so much you can't even imagine! Thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed this longish chapter. I tried to incorporate more of the characters in this chapter and even more in the next chapter. Tell me what you thought of this chapter. See ya next chap! **


	16. Chapter 16

"Uh, seriously?" Clarisse whined. "I have to spend two whole weeks with you two? I'm gonna go insane."

Percy smiled wickedly which even frightened me a little.

"Don't worry Clarisse, Nico and I have _much_ better things to be doing than annoy you on this quest." Percy said suggestively.

I blushed deeply when he said this and elbowed him in the ribs. It wasn't as if our relationship was a secret anymore, I would just prefer it if Percy didn't try to provoke Clarisse with taunts about it, especially when we had to endure two weeks with her.

"What?" He turned towards me and I could see he was trying to hold back laughter. "All I said is we wouldn't annoy her." He put on his best innocent look as he said this.

"Gods you two make me want to vomit." Clarisse said.

"Shut it Clarisse." I said with my famous death glare.

"Excuse me Death Breath." She said with one eyebrow raised.

"You heard me. Shut. It." I said it slowly as if I was talking to a kindergartener.

"Oh you did it now," She said. "you better sleep with one eye open, 'cause I'm going to get you back when you least expect it. The best part is, I have two weeks to execute your slow painful death."

Percy just laughed but I got a queasy feeling in the pit of stomach. When Clarisse was pissed, she was pissed.

"Crap Annabeth, what have you gotten me into." I muttered before heading towards the Big House for the second time today to say goodbye to Rachel.

I thought back to the conversation with Chiron earlier today.

_Chiron sat very still for a couple of minutes before Clarisse finally broke the silence. _

"_So…is there a reason why I am here?" She asked bluntly._

"_Yes, you three have a very important quest to complete." Chiron said looking more solemn than usual. "It seems that one of our fellow campers has gone missing. Lately, there have been slight disturbances throughout the camp. For example, a couple of days ago, large deep footprints that could only possibly be from some sort of monster appeared outside of the Athena cabin. Luckily nobody saw them yet, so I had time to fill them up. But I am very worried about the footsteps; not even Grover, Head satyr, could figure out what type of monster it was by its scent. That leads me to believe that there some very ancient and serious magic going on around here. This place is very heavily protected, so all the evidence seems to lead to a man-" Clarisse coughed loudly and Chiron gave her an apologetic glance, "or woman on the inside."_

"_Why haven't the other campers been warned?" Percy asked, displeasure written all over his face. _

"_I don't want panic to be spread around the camp." Chiron said soothingly. _

"_They have a right to know." Percy replied quietly but firmly. _

"_If it gets worse, I may have to tell them, but until then I shall not have everybody on edge knowing that there are dangerous monsters on the loose while three of our best fighters are away on a quest." Percy seemed content with that answer and left the subject alone._

"_So how do we find Annabeth?" I spoke for the first time since we arrived._

"_It may be very difficult considering our Oracle seems to be having trouble telling any prophesies. It's as if her connection with the Fates has been temporarily cut off."_

"_Are things really that bad?" I said incredulously. _

"_It seems that way, yes." Chiron said. "The best I can do is give you directions to a place that might help you find some information about Annabeth's whereabouts."_

_I nodded eagerly for him to continue._

"_Well, you may be able to find some information from the party ponies. They contacted me yesterday and asked me if anything strange had happened around the camp. I told them about the various odd things that I had encountered but when I asked them what it all meant they told me it was not their place to interfere. They looked almost…scared, which is not like them at all. You three should seek them out in Texas and try to get any information that you can out of them."_

"_So when does this thing start?" Clarisse asked._

"_Tomorrow." Chiron said with worry etched on his face. "You will leave early in the morning so that none of the campers can bombard you with questions."_

…OoO…

"You're leaving?!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Yes, we have to save Annabeth." I said.

"But- but you and Percy just got together!" She pouted. "Now I won't be able to witness any incredibly hot make out sessions or adorable displays of affection."

"And here I thought you were sad to see your best friend leave because it's your best friend, not because without me here you can't get a sufficient dose of whatever sick fantasies you have about me and Percy." I scowled.

"Hey it's not my fault that I happen to have two incredibly sexy gay friends that just so happen to hook up and then leave right when everything is perfect. Talk about bad timing."

"Would you like me to bring Percy here so we make-out in front of you before we leave?!" I asked sarcastically.

"Oh that would be awesome." She squealed as she pushed me towards his cabin. "Now go get him tiger."

"I was joking Rach, apparently you don't see what's wrong with what I said. Seriously, did you actually think I was going to go get Percy and bring him here just for your pleasure?"

She nodded.

"You are unbelievable!"

"Oh hush, you know I love you. You just don't know how it is being so lonely all the time." I raised my eyebrow at that. "Okay so maybe you do, but still…it's hot."

"I need to get you a boyfriend…badly."

She pushed me and laughed. Then her face grew serious as she grabbed me and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug.

"Be safe." She whispered into my ear.

**Sorry for the long break. School is first priority but I promise you I will finish this fic. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. Next chapter will hopefully be out before the end of Thanksgiving break. Love you all and please tell me what you thought of the chapter. Disclaimer: I dont own anything except Kyle and plot line, the rest is Rick Riordon's.**


	17. Chapter 17

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY TORRE! This chapter is written especially for you:) I hope you like it. I know it's a bit late and I'm very sorry for that.**

I took Percy's hand and led him towards the car.

"Can't we just shadow-travel to the car?" Percy purred into my ear.

I smirked. "Someone's horny."

"S'not my fault." He said slightly slurred from sleepiness.

"Oh yeah, and why's that?"

"Well, for starters, you woke me up today without brushing your hair."

"Sorry, I was tired and didn't feel like taking the time to brush it."

"Well now your hair's all rumpled. It's cute. It looks like you have sex hair."

I was thankful it was too dark for Percy to see the deep blush that spread across my cheeks.

"Also, your pants are really tight. I mean come on! … It's like you planned my horniness."

I snorted at his comment and continued to lead him towards the car.

"Remind me again why we can't shadow travel to Texas?" Percy asked grumpily.

"Because it would be extremely tedious for me to shadow-travel all three of us to Texas. A passed out Nico would not be a very helpful Nico." I said patronizingly.

Percy just groaned in response.

"Get in."

"What? Who's going to drive then?" He asked as he looked at me curiously. "I mean, no offense, but you suck at driving." I punched him hard on the shoulder.

"Hey! I am a perfectly good driver. Just because you can't handle a little speed doesn't mean I'm a bad driver."

"A 'little speed' is one thing, going ninety five on the freeway…in traffic is whole other story." I stuck my tongue out at him and shoved him over to the seat beside him.

"Don't worry crybaby, I'm not driving either. Clarisse is." He shot me the most panicked look I've ever seen in my life.

The look quickly changed to that of anger. He protested loudly and tried to push his way past me and out of the car.

"Oh no you don't." I said as I pushed him back down and buckled him quickly.

"Are you insane? She's gonna kill us. Oh my gods were going to die."

"Calm down Perce. I've seen Clarisse drive and she's actually decent at it."

"I take no comfort in that seeing as it's coming from you, the worst driver…ever."

I stuck my tongue out at him and opened the door of the car. "Fine, I thought it would be a good opportunity to spend some time together and creep out Clarisse at the same time. I guess I was wrong. Nevermind then, I'll just sit in the front with Clarisse and keep her company."

I started to step out of the car when I felt a hand grab my arm. I smirked. I knew it would work, that kind of manipulation seemed to be working a lot lately. He pulled me back into the car and into his lap. "You think you're real sneaky don't you?"

"Why yes, yes I do."

"It's weird, I know you're manipulating me and yet I am totally ok with it."

I laughed and turned around in his lap so that I was facing him more. I buried my face into his neck and started to kiss him lightly. I brought my face back up to look at him and said, "Well, you wouldn't get _that_ if you didn't give in to my manipulation."

"True. And, I was just saying how exceptionally horny I am."

"Gods Percy calm your pants." I said with a smirk.

"Why don't you calm them for me?" Percy said with a suggestive eyebrow raise.

"What does that even mean?" I said not even bothering to hide my laugh. "Are you suggesting I turn you _off_?"

"Whatever. It sounded better in my head, but now that I think about it, that comment was a bit counterproductive."

"What's taking her so long?" I asked impatiently.

"Who?" Percy asked.

"Clarisse. She should be here by now."

"More time for us." Percy said while attempting to shove his tongue down my throat. I pushed him away gently.

"Percy, I'm serious. If we want to stay on schedule we need to leave now. Annabeth's in danger." I said. Percy's face turned serious as he remembered exactly why he was here in the first place.

"What up dorks?" Clarisse said as she opened the driver's door.

"What took so long Clarisse, did you need to fix your make up?" Percy said sarcastically.

She turned bright red and turned towards Percy. "What was that Fish Breath?"

"You heard me Muscle Man."

"What the hell Percy?! Do you have a death wish or something?" I said urgently while I punched him in the arm.

"What?! She started it!" Percy said with his hands held up in defense.

"And how exactly did she start it?" I looked at him skeptically.

"She called us dorks."

"Oh my gods Perce! I'm pretty sure you'll get over it. I'm not so sure Clarisse will get over what you just called her though."

"It's a good thing that i have an awesome boyfriend with an army of dead people to protect me then isn't it?"

I shook my head in disbelief although I did secretly like the sound of being Percy's knight in shining army. I chuckled quietly as I thought of what Percy would think if he knew I was thinking of him as a damsel in distress. He probably wouldn't take it very well.

"What?" Percy and Clarisse said simultaneously. I shook myself a little to focus on reality.

"Huh?" I asked.

"What were you laughing about?" Clarisse said with one eyebrow raised.

"Oh," I said. "It was nothing."

"You better tell me Bones. You're still on my list. Just because Fish Boy here is stupid enough to earn himself a spot on the top of my list doesn't mean I've forgotten about you, so spill."

"Fine if you must know I was thinking about Percy's perfect body and how I'm going to ravish it when I ge-"

"Oh my gods stop! That's beyond disgusting! I don't want to know about what you and Percy do on your free time." Clarisse interrupted with her hands covering her ears.

"You asked." I said with a smirk. Percy was hunched over and shaking with laughter.

"Let's just go." Clarisse said and turned the key in the ignition. She pulled out of Camp Halfblood and we started off on our quest.

…OoO…

I climbed up onto Percy's lap not even bothering with my seatbelt. I smashed our lips together. His tongue slid along my bottom lip. I opened it willingly and brought my hands down to his lower back. Somewhere along the way Percy's hands got tangled in my hair. I moaned softly at the touch of his hands in my hair.

"Ugh guys, no having sex in the back!"

"We're not having sex Clari now shush." Percy said then went back to kissing me.

My hands gripped his back and I lightly ran my fingers down until they I was tracing his pant line. I could feel him shiver as I touched him. He shifted me so that I was straddling him.

"Seriously you two are making me nauseous." Clarisse said in a whiny voice that did not sound anything like the usually menacing Clarisse.

Percy casually flipped her off and continued to inch his hands slowly down my chest.

I tugged eagerly at his shirt and broke our lips apart for a minute. He smiled at me and laughed. I shot him my best pouty face and he said, "Maybe we shouldn't go quite that far in front of Clarisse, she might drive us off a cliff."

"Damn straight I will." She said deathly serious.

"Ugh fine." I said unwillingly.

"It's okay, we can stop at a hotel tonight and then we'll have plenty of time to continue this." I stared down nervously at my lap. He pulled my chin up and asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." I tried to look anywhere but his eyes.

"No, it's definitely something. Please talk to me. Seriously, what's the matter?" he said with worry etched on his face.

"Can we please talk about this later?" I said meaningfully glancing at Clarisse. "You know, when we're in private."

He looked as if he were about to protest but decided against it. He nodded and we sat in an awkward silence for a moment before I decided to get off his lap and sit down in my own seat. I silently cursed myself for completely ruining the mood.

**Sorry again for the long wait. I know you all probably hate me but it's just been really difficult to update so please bear with me. I hope you liked the chapter. Tell me what you thought of it. I added the make out session as a last minute apology for the long wait. I hope my readers will forgive me. Scenes like the last one are really hard for me to write so please excuse me if I totally botched it. Bye, see ya next chapter:)**


	18. Chapter 18

"Okay we're here." Clarisse said as she pulled up to a Marriott.

We made our way towards the lobby. When we reached the front desk Clarisse pulled a huge bundle of cash out of her pocket and gave a portion of it to the man at the front desk. Percy and I just stared at her in disbelief.

"What?" She said when she released we had both gone slack jawed at the sight of all the green bills.

"Where in Mount Olympus did you get all that money?" Percy asked warily.

She shrugged and said, "My mom is a hot shot neurosurgeon in L.A."

"Jeez I don't even think Neeks here has that much money, and his dad's the god of wealth." Percy said with a low whistle. "Must be nice having all that money to blow."

"Yeah totally, especially when you never get to see your mom because she's always at work and when she's not at work she is at some party in Hollywood hosted by one of her filthy rich patients." Clarisse said bitterly.

It got very silent after that and nobody talked until we got to our two hotel rooms. There were two twin beds for Percy and me in one room and a queen for Clarisse in the other room.

As soon as Percy and I were in our room I breathed a breath of relief. "Wow, I never thought of Clarisse as the open type. Jeez I don't think that could have possibly been more awkward."

"I know, I almost felt kind of bad for her until I remembered that she is an evil witch."

"Percy, be nice. She must have been emotionally damaged when she was a kid, not having her mom around and all." I scolded.

"Aw man, now I'm going to feel awkward taunting and teasing her." Percy said with a look of sadness.

"Shallow. That's all I can say to that." I shook my head but let on a small smile to show him I was joking.

"Nico?" Percy suddenly turned serious. The look frightened me but I answered him regardless.

"Yeah?"

"What was wrong earlier today? Did I say or do something that upset you?" He asked warily.

I sighed. I was hoping he would forget about that. "No you didn't do anything. It's kind of embarrassing actually."

He stared at me expectantly waiting for me to continue and when he didn't he asked, "What is it?"

"Do we really have to talk about this now?" I whined.

"Yes." He said firmly and I could tell I wasn't going to win this argument.

"Fine, but you have to promise not to laugh." He raised his eyebrow at this but nodded nonetheless.

"Okay so you know how I'm super old?" He stifled a laugh and nodded. "Well, thinks have changed a lot since then, including moral standards. Um…earlier you said something about us continuing later which kind of sounded as if you were implying sex." At the word I could feel my face heat up.

Percy looked away awkwardly and groaned. "Nico, you read way too much into that. That's not what I meant. I was simply trying to annoy Clarisse."

"Oh." I breathed a sigh of relief. Although I was relieved, I did make things way more awkward than they needed to be.

He added, "Besides, I would never do anything you weren't comfortable with."

I looked away embarrassedly. I felt his forefinger pull my chin towards him.

"Hey, relax. No need to get embarrassed. Trust me my embarrassing moments are way worse than yours." He said and winced probably about one of the embarrassing things that happened to him.

"Pft, yeah right. I highly doubt that." I scoffed.

"Oh yeah? Alright, challenge accepted. About a year ago somebody must have slipped something into my drink because the next thing I know I'm peeing in the bathroom sink when all of the sudden Clarisse walks in. I yelled at her to get out of the boys' bathroom and she averts her eyes and calmly said 'You're in the girls' bathroom moron.'"

I couldn't help the short and fast giggles that were escaping me. Between breaths I said, "She…saw you…pee! Ha! That's hilarious, how come you never told me?"

"We promised each other we'd never speak a word of it. I still haven't found out who drugged me that night." He said seriously.

"Hmmm, well one time, when I was first learning how to shadow-travel, I went straight from my shower to ending up soaking wet and naked on top of the dining table _while_ my dad and Persephone were eating dinner."

Percy sat there and gasped as he took in this new information. "You did what?!" He asked with his jaws nearly on the ground.

"And, Persephone thought it was hilarious! She just sat there laughing at me. You could tell she was just loving the humiliation. All the while my dad was _blushing_! Did you hear that?! My dad, the god of the underworld was freaking blushing like a school girl."

Percy shook uncontrollably and laughed to the point that tears streamed down his face. He put up his finger as if to say hold on a second and then continued on with his chuckling. After a few minutes, when Percy finally stopped laughing I shot him a smug look and said, "See, mine was worse."

"Wait, I'm not done yet, I still haven't told you my worse." Percy said. I blinked at him; what could possibly be worse than a god that happens to be your own dad, and a goddess seeing you naked on top of their dinner table?

"I'm confused," I said. "Clarisse seeing you pee wasn't your most embarrassing moment. Jeez, you're just full of secrets aren't you?"

Percy shifted around uncomfortably and started to scratch at his arm the way he always did when he was nervous, which was not often.

"Are you okay Perce?" I asked. I was starting to get a little concerned.

"Hm?" He asked. It looked like I had just interrupted him from a daydream.

"I asked if you were okay."

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"You look kind of nauseous."

"Well, my most embarrassing moment concerns you …sort of. I'm regretting telling you."

"Seriously, if it concerns me don't you think I deserve to know?" I asked.

"No. It indirectly concerns you…very indirectly."

"Awww, come on Percy, please tell me. I'll die of curiosity!"

He looked as if he was working up the courage to tell me. His hand moved even faster up and down his arm.

"Okay, but you have to promise not to laugh or be disgusted."

"Sure, now tell me." I demanded sounding somewhat like a petulant little child.

"Um, I was in my cabin one day and Annabeth walked in on me…" He trailed off blushing terribly.

"And…" I said nudging him along with the story.

"And, I was umm…pleasuring myself."

"That's embarrassing but that can't be the worst; wasn't she your girlfriend then?"

"Yeah, but I may have possibly said someone else's name while doing it."

I sat there confused for a second wondering what the hell this had to do with me before it finally dawned on me. My eyes widened and I gasped. "You said my name!"

He nodded and went over to the bed and collapsed on it, face first. I was about to take pity on him and break the silence when a huge snarling fury crashed through the hotel window.

Just our luck.

**Hi everybody who reads this! I love you all but I have no idea if you guys want me to keep going or if you think this story is okay or not. Please give me some feedback so I know what you think of the story. Thank you all for reading, reviewing, alerting and favoriting! **

**I think I'm going to start asking a question after chapter. You can answer in your review if you want and I'll answer in the next update.**

**Question: What's your favorite band? **


	19. Chapter 19

**My favorite band is a tie between Panic! At The Disco and Mayday Parade.**

**Thank you all who reviewed and participated in answering the question at the end of the last chapter. I really enjoyed seeing everybody's favorite bands and it broadened my music spectrum.**

**Question: What is your favorite slash and why? (Doesn't have to be from PJO.)**

**I also wanted to say how sorry I am for the long break from this story. I know from experience how horrible it is to wait for authors to update. I especially hate it when they don't update for so long that I've just given up hope of them ever finishing the story. I know this is probably exactly what you guys feel about this story, so I am terribly sorry about that.**

I saw Percy side-step the fury and deftly swipe his sword at its arm. Before I could rush to help him, a second fury came hurtling towards me. I stumbled backwards and tripped over the small futon. I crashed to the floor, landing on my butt. I saw huge curved claws coming straight for me and I immediately rolled to the right and tried to find my sword. I saw it lying on the night stand a few feet away. I cursed under my breath as I realized that the fury would already be ripping me to shreds by the time I reached the sword.

As I was trying to decide on what to do next the fury's claws crashed down on my chest and pinned to the floor. It just stood there for a moment and stared at me with pure hatred in its eyes. I did the only thing I could think of and prayed to my father. I waited five seconds then ten and nothing happened. I couldn't figure out why the fury was taking its time but I didn't wait to find out. Since I didn't think my dad would show up and save the day, I did something I didn't actually expect to work. I took one of its gigantic claws in both hands and wrenched up as hard as I could. I could hear a loud cracking noise and the fury drew back in pain. This distraction gave me enough time to grab my sword and plunge it into the beast's heart.

I turned towards Percy to see how he was holding up with the other monster. He seemed to be struggling. His movements were sluggish and he looked tired. I ran forward ready to attack the fury from behind when I saw it. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I witnessed Percy about to be slashed straight through his middle. He still hadn't recovered from the last blow so he didn't see this one coming. I did the first thing that popped into my head. I ran in front of Percy. It was instinct.

Pain seared through my stomach. I fell to the ground and started to cough up blood. My vision started to get hazy around the edges and very soon after I blacked out altogether.

…OoO…

When I woke up I opened my eyes to see where I was but then immediately closed them due to excessive amount of light shining in my eyes. I tried to move and quickly learned how much pain I was in. I groaned loudly and tried to open my eyes again. This time I was prepared and my eyes eventually adjusted to the light. I didn't recognize where I was. I tried to think about how I could have ended up in this strange place but I couldn't remember. The last thing I could remember was being in the car with Percy and- Percy, where was Percy?

I looked around the room again, but this time I actually took in the surroundings. Everything seemed to have a bright halo of white light around it. I couldn't tell if that was just because my eyes were hazy like the effects chlorine has on your eyes after swimming, or if there was an actual glow to every object in the room.

Just then two unfamiliar people walked into the room wearing long trench coats. My demigod senses kicked in and I immediately jumped into defense mode. Or at least I would have, if the second I had tried to stand up I hadn't puked all over myself. One of the strange people rushed over to me and pushed me gently back into bed.

"Lie down," he instructed in a stern voice that reminded me of getting scolded by Chiron.

"Wh- who are you?" I asked as he wiped my stomach contents off the side of my body.

"We're here to help." I was immediately frustrated with how he avoided my question.

My attention turned to the short brunette girl standing in the corner of the room typing something on her phone.

I weighed my options quickly. They seemed friendly enough but one could never be too sure. There were two of them and only one of me so fighting seemed to be out of the equation. The woman looked distracted so that could work to my advantage, but the man had his eye on me as he wrote things down on a clipboard at his desk.

He must have known what I was thinking about because the next thing he said was, "There are security guards at every entrance and exit. Also, that gash is deep enough to the point where you won't be able to stand, much less walk in a few days."

I eyed him suspiciously. "How did I get here?"

"Aw, the question we've all been waiting for." He said with a small smile.

When he didn't say anything I cocked my eyebrow hoping that he would take the hint and answer the dang question.

"Your friends brought you here about an hour after the furies attacked you." The man said as he stood up and walked towards the door. I didn't want him to leave. I had more questions that I needed answered.

"Wait!" I said a little louder than I intended. He raised a thin eyebrow at me and waited for me to continue.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"Where is who?" His face had a look of honest confusion on it.

"My friend, where is he?" The man's sudden look of interest sparked suspicion in me.

"Hmm, no a girl brought you here. Clarisse. Were you traveling with someone else?"

I silently cursed myself for possibly giving this suspicious man unnecessary and possibly dangerous information. If this man was untrustworthy, I didn't want to let him in on information about Percy.

"No, I we were just spending the night at my friend's house and I just assumed that he took me wherever we are now." I said quickly trying to cover up what I had said about Percy.

I could tell the man didn't believe me but he didn't push any further.

Why had Percy not gone with me and Clarisse? I furrowed my brow in confusion and tried really hard to remember on what had happened before I ended up here. After a few seconds of deep concentration, frustration got the better of me and I sighed in defeat. I needed to know where Percy was. What if he was hurt? Or worse…

**Ugh! That was impossible for me to write. I hope you guys enjoyed it and hopefully there will be some actual Percico-ness in the next chapter. Please tell me what you guys thought! The feedback has been absolutely lovely and frankly the only reason why I even continue writing. It was all your guy's persistent reviews that have motivated me to post this chapter and start on the next. Thank you guys so much, I don't know what I would do without you. Hopefully the next chapter will be much better and you'll find out what's going on with the trio. **


	20. Chapter 20

**My favorite slash is Sam/Gabriel from Supernatural and Zach/Booth from Bones. Sam is so cute and nerdy while Gabriel always puts up a front and tries to be the Trickster, and I think Sam brings out the kinder side of him. Zach is just the most awesome character on Bones and I think his awkwardness pairs perfectly with Booth's social adeptness and need to protect scrawny squints:) **

"Where is he?" I asked Clarisse quietly the moment she walked through the doors.

"Calm down lover boy, your precious boyfriend is safe. I couldn't bring him here though."

"Why not?" I demanded not caring if I sounded like a petulant child.

"Because these people aren't very trustworthy. I had a hard enough time getting Percy to let me take you here, but this was the only place that can heal you without somebody calling the cops or social services."

"Why are you allowed to be here but Percy isn't?"

"My mom has connections. These people won't do anything to me unless they want to answer to my mom. Trust me when I say you don't want to mess with her. Percy on the other hand doesn't have any connections to her."

"So…you took me here?"

"Yeah, I'm willing to take that risk."

I glared at her and said, "Thanks Clarisse, glad to know you care so deeply about me."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you'll get over it Death Breath. You're a big boy now. Besides, Percy doesn't need to be here, _you_ do. You're really badly injured thanks to that stunt you pulled."

"About that, what happened? Why am I injured?"

She gazed at me warily. "You don't remember?" I shook my head.

"Well, I wasn't there so I don't know all the details but I'll tell you what Percy told me. You guys had just gotten to your room and were sitting on the beds talking when the fury flew into the window and attacked you guys. Shortly after another fury came as well and both of you fought separately. You killed your fury first. Apparently you made the dumbass move of jumping in front of Percy without a weapon. The fury tore into your stomach and it fractured a couple of your ribs. Usually that kind of injury would take weeks to heal but being demigods we heal faster, especially with some ambrosia, which this place just happens to have. Anyways, after the fury got to you, Percy cut off its head and carried you to me. You were in pretty bad shape and Guppy Face forgot to bring the ambrosia."

"Guppy Face?" I raised an eyebrow and tried to hide my amused smile. "That's a new one."

"Really? That's what you got from that whole story?!" She shook her head and muttered something under her breath about constipated zombies. "Anyways, as soon as you heal, you and me are gonna bust outa here."

I stared at her with wide eyes. Bust out? Where even were we?

"Clarisse?" I asked slowly, "Where are we exactly ad why do we need to _escape_?"

"Well, they are my connections of my mom, but there's something else too. You see, my mom kind of…requested I be brought back to her if I was found. Basically whoever gives me to her gets a fat reward, but hey, at least they'll heal you."

"You didn't think of telling us this _before_ we left on this trip!" I shouted angrily, "No, you had to wait until after we were freakin' captured."

"Wait," I said. "Why am I in danger then?"

"Well, these people know what demigods are and you happen to be a very…powerful one." She mumbled the last part as if it hurt her to say it.

"What was that Clarisse? I couldn't hear you." I teased trying to annoy her. "Could that have possibly been a compliment?" She glared at me and punched me in the arm.

"Hey! Watch it, I'm still injured." She smirked at me and sauntered to the other side of the room.

"Get over it." She deadpanned.

"Where are you going? Are you leaving me alone with these weird people?" I asked anxiously as she scooted nearer to the door.

"I'm letting you catch up on your beauty sleep. You need it." She smiled innocently as she added the last part.

"Thanks." I said drily.

She spun around and was about to leave when I called out to her, "Wait!"

"Ugh, what?"

"Is there any way that you could contact Percy without tipping these people off his whereabouts?"

She seemed to ponder this for a moment. "Yes…I think so. If I can use the bathroom without anybody else in there, then yeah."

"Could you give him a message please?" I asked.

She just shrugged apparently indifferent. "You're only going to be in here for a couple of days you clingy freak."

I glared at her but continued anyways. "Tell him to be safe and to not do anything stupid." My message seemed forced and impersonal. I wanted to say more but it would have been awkward seeing as Clarisse was the one relaying the message.

She nodded then walked out of the room.

I just lay there staring at the wall for what seemed like hours until I heard a rustling noise coming from the hallway. The next minute the strange tall man from earlier came back into the room. He walked gracefully over to the computer near the end of my bed. I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. After a few minutes I heard whispers. I took a peek at the man and was startled to see a different, much scarier man talking to the other in hushed tones. It was frightening that I hadn't even heard him enter the room.

The formidable man was tall and had a very sturdy build. He looked as if he had been a body builder at one point in his life. He was bald and had tiny spectacles on his nose that somewhat countered his scary bodyguard look.

I closed my eyes after a minute or so in fear of them realizing I was awake and listening in. I listened closely and caught some of their conversation.

"He can be utilized."

"But he's only a child."

"He won't be a child forever. And if we have him, by the time he comes of age he will be doing great things."

"It's illegal for us to just keep the child."

"These are special circumstances. This child is a demigod, a very powerful one at that. If we let him leave, he could use his powers for evil and we would be responsible for not stopping it."

"Your logic is faulty. You have no proof that Nico is dangerous."

"This is not up for discussion. I am the boss, and Nico is staying."

I heard a sigh and then the doctor spoke, "And what about Clarisse? Is she also staying?"

"No, we are returning her to her mother. Her safe return is worth about two million dollars, way more use to us than her menial powers." I started to panic. Clarisse had already warned me all about this but hearing it straight from the head guy really solidified it.

There was no way we could possibly escape. I was far too injured to move much less take on grown men and security guards. My ribs still hadn't healed properly even with the ambrosia due to a small infection. The only hope of escape was the small window located near the side of my bed that was opposite of the door. The window looked small but not impossible to fit through. For Clarisse though it might be a tight fit.

…OoO…

Clarisse came by my room later that day and I ran my flimsy plan by her. We would wait until the doctors came in again then as soon as they leave we would take the doctor's chair and use it to prop us out the window. It took me awhile to convince Clarisse of the plan but she finally did.

Instead of just leaving me there alone to wait, Clarisse actually waited with me next to my bed. It was very awkward and since there were no TVs or whatever normal hospital rooms have, I was left to sit there twiddling my thumbs while Clarisse eventually fell asleep and started to obnoxiously snore. Thank gods I share a room with Percy! Finally, after about an hour and a half of waiting, the doctor came. The tall man was alone this time. He walked over to me and checked my vitals first. He told me everything was normal and that my ribs should be fully healed in about two days. This made me a bit nervous considering I was planning on doing some serious moving in just a little bit.

As soon as he left, Clarisse started helping me rip out the IV and unhooking me from various machines. Once the task was completed, I made my way slowly off the bed. It was painful, but not as much as I thought it would be. I politely gestured for her to go first. She then proceeded to glare at me and told me to, "got to Hell, because there's no chance I'm going first so that you can ogle my butt the whole way up." I shivered at the disgusting thought. I would have snorted at the ridiculousness of her statement but the look on her face told me to hold my tongue. Not wanting to argue I just started to climb up the chair and reached up to the window ledge. If I in any way thought this was going to be easy, I was wrong! I had to choke back a scream at the feeling of the ledge scraping against my ribs. It felt as if somebody was stabbing my chest and twisting the blade repeatedly. I couldn't help it, I let out a soft whimper that I was sure Clarisse would never let me live down. Surprisingly her only words were to ask if I was alright. I couldn't answer her due to the pain but she seemed to have understood because she placed her hands under my feet and boosted me further up. With a minute more of struggling, I finally made it out the window.

Clarisse lifted herself to the window's ledge and was now trying to wriggle her way through the miniscule space. That's when we heard the beeps. They were coming from the monitors and with every beep the noise became louder. We knew we only had seconds, if that, to get Clarisse out of her current predicament. She started to panic and wriggle with all her strength. I didn't know what to do. I felt so helpless. If I tried to help her out of the window I was sure my healing ribs would snap, but if I didn't help at all the doctors would definitely make it in the room before she could escape. I did the only thing I could think to do. I turned around and yelled for somebody to help. I yelled at the top of my lungs that someone was trying to take my sister.

Immediately a small crowd made its way around the window. A middle age mortal man made his way to the front of the group and took the hands of Clarisse and started to pull her out. The man was rather strong so Clarisse was out of the window within seconds. As soon as she was out the crowd of people started to ask her questions.

"Are you okay?"

"How long have you been in there?"

"Who took you?"

Clarisse looked as if she was being suffocated, and as I glanced back into the room I saw that the guards had made their way into the hospital room, so I figured now was a good time to leave. I turned and thanked the man and took Clarisse's hand and sprinted towards the street.

I searched frantically for somewhere to hide. Then, Clarisse started to pull me in the direction od a diner. She sat down at a table be the window without waiting for the waiter like the sign said.

"What are we doing Clarisse?"

"Hiding," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"We're right in the window Clarisse, anybody could see us." I said with a raised eyebrow.

She took the menus and propped them up in between our faces and the window.

"Oh," was all I said in response.

"Duh." She rolled her eyes.

I peeked out from behind the menu only to quickly hide again. The female doctor from earlier was looking all around the street trying to find us.

"Uh Clarisse?" I said uncertainly. "I'm still in my hospital gown. Won't that be a little suspicious?"

"Don't worry about it. The people from outside can only see the top half of us and if people notice that in here, well they can just get over it."

"Okay, so here's the plan," Clarisse said. "I told Percy that when we escaped we were going to meet him at the bowling alley about a mile and a half from here. Thankfully they didn't take anything from me so I still have some money left for a cab. Let's go, it's time and there is nobody I can see searching for us anymore."

"It doesn't work you know" I said suddenly.

She looked at me like I was crazy. "What doesn't work?"

"Guppy face."

She groaned and said, "Not this again."

"Well it doesn't…Fish Face is perfect because it is an alliteration whereas Guppy Face has no such appealing symmetry."

"Ugh, don't analyze it. It's supposed to be insulting. How is it gonna be insulting if you look into it so much? Besides, you freak, who cares about the friggin symmetry?! Gods you're such a nerd!"

I tried to hide my amused smile as we walked towards the taxi on the side of the road.

**Hey everybody! Next chapter will have lots of Percy! As an apology for the long wait in between chapters lately, I tried to make this one a bit longer than usual. I hope the wait was worth it! Anyways, you are all lovely people and I ALWAYS enjoy hearing what you have to say about this fic. I'm going to be traveling for a month starting tomorrow so I probably won't be able to update until after my trip, but if I can, I certainly will:) See ya next chapter!**

**Question: What's your favorite TV show?**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hi everyone! I haven't written in a while but HoH inspired me to update.**

"Percy! Oh gods I think I'm going to die if I have to spend another moment alone with that she-Devil." I said as I slammed into him, pressing Percy against a wall.

He chuckled and squeezed back. "Well it's nice to see you too Neeks. I'm glad you're okay. I fought with Clarisse to let me come with you to the clinic thing but she wouldn't let me." He pouted as he said the last part.

"Aw were you worried?" I teased as I attached my lips onto his. As I pulled away I took his bottom lip gently between my teeth.

Percy moaned at the contact. "Ugh I missed you so freaking much."

"Woah, yeah I can see that," I said as I looked down when his erection pressed into my thigh.

Percy's cheeks immediately tinged scarlet. He backed away quickly and turned to hide the enormous tent in his pants. I reached for him and pressed him against me, rocking my hips against his.

"Since when are you the shy one?" I asked him teasingly.

Before Percy could answer I spun him around, pinned his arms against the walls and slammed my mouth against his. The small whimper that escaped from him sent shivers up my back. I eagerly slipped my tongue inside of his mouth and let my hands drift towards the little space between his shirt and pants.

He pulled back slightly and said, "I'm not complaining or anything but what brought this on?"

"Umm…horniness?"

Percy laughed in response so I decided the only way to shut him up was to once more occupy his mouth.

Instead of sliding my hands up his shirt like I usually would have done, my hands traveled south. Percy momentarily tensed as my hands slipped beneath his waistband. My tongue lazily explored the different curves of the inside of Percy's mouth while gently massaging his bare hips under his pants.

"Seriously what did I do to deserve this?" Percy said after each kiss he placed along my jaw line.

I threw my head back to allow him more room on my neck. "You talk too much. Just go with it."

I don't know what had come over me. Suddenly I just felt the overwhelming urge to get Percy out of his clothes and onto the nearest bed. It was as if the time apart from him completely magnified the sexual tension I felt around him. Whatever it was, I went with it.

Percy started walking us over to the hotel room's desk and roped his lithe arms around my torso. He lifted me up and set me down on the desk not caring that the phone and room service folder slid off the table as he did so. His hardness pressed into mine making it extremely difficult for me to think straight. I brought his attention back to my lips and fought for dominance, eventually giving way to Percy.

"Oh gods I'm going to Hell." He murmured.

"Hmm?"

"Sinful thoughts…about you…and me…and a bed."

"Then I'll meet you there." I said breathlessly as Percy started to tug at the end of my shirt.

He pulled away briefly to look me in the eye as if to ask permission. I nodded once and he quickly pulled my shirt off. His long stare made me suddenly self-conscience and my head dipped in disgust of my pale bony frame. But when I looked up all Percy's expression was one of want rather than disappointment. Percy licked his lips and crashed his lips back on my own. I reached my hands further into his pants and gently squeezed his behind. The tender touch affected him more than I thought it would and he arched into me. I groaned at the delicious contact. Percy's hand snaked in between our torsos and down below my hips. His hand brushed purposefully against my crotch and I couldn't stifle the slight hiss and whimper that escaped my mouth. My attention switched to Percy's fascinating earlobe. If I nibbled in the right spot, the reaction Percy gave was the most pleasured noise I have ever heard.

"Room service!" Talk about bad timing.

"Just ignore her. Maybe she'll go away." I whispered huskily into his ear.

Percy's expression looked conflicted as if he wasn't sure if his conscience would allow him to lie, albeit lie by omission.

"We didn't even order room service. Doesn't that seem suspicious?" Percy's words cleared my foggy mind. I tensed but stayed in the same position.

"All the more reason not to open the door. It's probably a trap." I said half trying to convince myself that the stupid hotel workers wouldn't successfully cock-block me.

"If we don't open the door, whoever is possibly trying to attack us will come in regardless of whether or not we open the door." Percy said.

"You're siding with the monster now!" I groaned.

Percy held up his hands defensively. "No, I'm just being realistic."

"Fine, open the door. Invite the monster right into the room by all means." I said bitterly.

Percy smirked. "There's the Nico we all know and love."

I rolled my eyes and walked over to my discarded shirt.

"Don't put it back on!" Percy said in a voice that sounded suspiciously like panic.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Percy flushed and glanced at the door. "I should go get that," he said hurriedly.

I looked down at the shirt in my hand then shrugged and tossed it on the bed.

"Ahh that is something I never wanted to see! Ever." A familiar voice pierced my ears. I turned stiffly to see a scarred Clarisse standing in the doorway.

She stepped through the door with her hand covering her eyes.

"Put your shirt back on Nico. I was hoping to interrupt something, but I was hoping you would have the decency to put your clothes back on before you open the door. I mean come on, I said it was room service! I can't believe you would flash some innocent bystander like that."

"Ugh Perce this is worse than a surprise attack. At least then I'd probably be dead."

"Don't be such a drama queen Neeks." He replied.

"Whatever. We should be focusing on finding Annabeth anyways. We still have to make it to the Party Ponies. Hopefully soon too because who knows where Annabeth is right now. She could be chained to a wall being tortured for all we know." I said. The air sparked with electricity as each shivered at the thought of an entrapped daughter of Athena.

"Well," Clarisse spoke quietly, "we should be there sometime tomorrow afternoon. But we need to rest first."

**There you go! Percy's back like you all asked:D Well this story won't be much longer…probably about five more chapters. Anyways thank you to those who reviewed and favorited! I love seeing what you think of the story. Also, PM me if you want me to do a one-shot with a particular couple and I'll see if I can write it after I finish this story. I won't write every suggestion, but if I see one I think I'm capable of doing a good job on, I will write it. Bye my loves. See ya next chapter! **

**Question: What is your favorite season and why?**


	22. Chapter 22

"I'm telling you dude, the new species is deadly. If one of your kind was kidnapped by the unknowns then they're sure as Tartarus dead by now."

We arrived at the Party Pony's headquarters earlier this morning and they started to describe the new lethal species. Percy was not taking the information well so far.

"There's no way Annabeth is dead! She's strong." Percy urged defiantly. The rowdy centaurs exchanged their usually playful facial expressions for ones of pity.

"I'm sorry but only a few super skilled people have ever managed to escape from the unknowns. Even those who do, come back with severe heart conditions. We're not sure why but that seems to be the common element in the surviving victims."

"Have any demigods ever managed to escape?" I tried to sound hopeful for Percy's sake, but I was not as naïve. I recognized that the chances of her survival were slim if not all. There was no doubt in my mind that Annabeth could take care of herself just fine, but there is only so much one person can do in the face of monsters.

"No demigods have been captured yet." The tall mangy centaur said.

I turned towards Percy and looked hopefully at him. Truthfully I felt awful inside, but I had to keep cool. I felt completely responsible for Annabeth's disappearance. If I hadn't rejected her she wouldn't have gotten upset and ran away.

"Then you have no idea what kind of chance we have against them." Percy seemed offended that the centaur had suggested nobody could survive when no demigods had ever been captured.

"Well no, but people and creatures just as powerful have been taken and never returned," said the defensive, shaggy centaur.

"We're done here. Come on Nico." Percy grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me towards the door.

"No," I said firmly as I wrenched my arm out of his grasp. "We need more information about these 'unknowns'. We'll never bring Annabeth home if we don't know what we are up against or where to find them. Did you think we were just going to magically spot them?" I knew what I said was harsh but I needed Percy to come back to reality and stop throwing his own personal pity party. I know Annabeth was his friend and all but it was kind of pissing me off how freaked out he was. If I had gone missing I was sure he wouldn't react like this.

Percy looked down at his feet and mumbled a barely audible "fine".

I walked back to the seat I had previously occupied and sat down.

"So, where exactly can we find these monsters? Do they have some secret headquarters or nests?" I asked.

"Yeah, we believe there is a horde of them next to the power plants on the other side of town. We think this is their main hideout, but there may be other places that your friend could be."

"Thank you." I said.

"Good luck dude. I hope you guys find her in time."

…OoO…

Percy and I caught a taxi back to the motel and picked up Clarisse so that we could head over to the power plant. We gathered most of our weapons to prepare for the inevitable clash.

Clarisse surprisingly looked quite distraught when we relayed the information the Party Ponies had given us. She tried to hide her dismayed frown with snide comments but I could tell she honestly cared about what happened to Annabeth.

"If these things are as bad as the Party Ponies said, then we should bring the whole arsenal." Percy said.

"How do you suppose we do that? We can't carry all that bulk and still be able to move efficiently." Clarisse said in opposition.

"We can put the weapons outside the power plant as back-up if we require different defenses." Percy said indignantly.

"Whatever," Clarisse muttered irritably.

"Can we just go before you two start throwing punches?" I asked warily.

"Sure. Do you think the Mist will hide our armory?" Clarisse asked.

"Well there's only one way to find out." Our expressions were grim as we exited the motel room.

We walked as briskly as was acceptable for a group of seemingly harmless teenagers. Nobody spared a second glance at us so we figured the Mist was in our favor. The walk from the motel to the power plant was about a mile and a half long so we decided to discuss our plan on the way over.

"Are we just going to barge in guns a blazing?" I asked disbelievingly.

The daughter of war described her stratagem: "No, I think we should create a distraction in the front entrance and look for an alternate entrance. The problem is, we don't know where she could possibly be. I mean, the building is probably huge."

"She will most likely be in plain sight considering how skilled these monsters seem to be," I said. Following their looks of confusion, I elaborated: "Their track-record for successfully killing their victims is pretty spot on so they will probably be overconfident and cocky. They won't believe hiding her will be a necessity."

"Nice thinking Death Breath." I just glared at Clarisse in response.

"Percy you've been unusually quiet. Are you okay?" I was becoming increasingly concerned with Percy's ghoulish appearance and perpetual silence.

"I'm fine," was his only answer.

I gave Clarisse a meaningful glance hoping that for once she would comply with my wishes. I thanked my dad when she seemed to take the hint and started to walk faster. Once she was out of earshot I turned to Percy and began the conversation that was bound to happen if he was going to continue acting like a kicked puppy.

"I know something's wrong. Please just talk to me Percy." I begged.

"Nothing's wrong, I just hope everything turns out okay." Percy said with downcast eyes.

"I'm not stupid Perce, what's really upsetting you? You're the most confident person I know, so you moping over whether or not this will turn out all right is bull." I looked at him sternly with full intent of getting him to open up. It was not very often that I attempted to talk about feelings so if I was making an attempt, he better damn well comply.

His green, glassy eyes stared back at me with open defiance.

"Spill." I said, my patience thinning.

He sighed but finally caved, "It's my fault."

"What?"

"It's my fault that Annabeth was kidnapped." Understanding dawned on me and I was about to argue when he placed a digit on my lips and continued. "If I hadn't fallen for you, she wouldn't have even been upset about us in the first place. She and you would have probably gotten together and she would have never been put in this dangerous situation."

"Percy I'm gay. We would have never dated no matter what. She still would have been upset about rejection regardless of your involvement. Stop beating yourself up. It's ridiculous, if anybody is to blame, it's me." As I said the last part, my voice cracked slightly.

I felt his arm slip around my neck and his warm, damp lips press against my forehead.

"Hey, it is _not_ your fault." Percy whispered into my hair. I flushed but did nothing to push him away, momentarily forgetting my disgust of public displays of affection.

"How did this even happen," I said and chuckled shakily. "Wasn't I supposed to be one comforting you?"

He smiled warmly and took my hand.

…OoO…

"You guys make the distraction and I'll go get Annabeth." Clarisse ordered.

Our protests went unheard as she brought her hand up in a motion for us to cease talking.

"Guys, do you seriously think she's gonna want to see you two? You two are the reason she left camp in the first place."

My chest felt heavy as she said these words but I kept my face a stone.

"Fine," Percy said reluctantly. "But what are we going to do to keep all the monsters occupied long enough."

Clarisse's Cheshire cat smile unnerved me. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a medium size box. "I got you covered."

"Is that a bomb?" Percy said, eyes the size of dinner plates.

"Yup. Nothing too bad. Just a minor explosion. Maybe large enough to destroy anything within a fifteen yard radius."

I gaped at her. "Fifteen _yards_? That's what you call minor?! Clarisse, this is a power plant. Don't you think explosives might be a little, oh I don't know, _dangerous_?!"

"Calm down wuss. It's got a long wick, so just light it and run. As long as you keep it a safe distance from anything electrical or flammable I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Thanks Clarisse, that's really reassuring." The sarcasm in my voice was palpable.

"Do you need me to change your diaper?" I decided to not grace that with a response.

"Alright boys, you ready for war?"

**Happy New Year! Thank you for your reviews guys. Seriously, it makes me smile to see that people actually read and enjoy this story. This story is almost at its end. I think it will have less chapters than I previously stated. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I look forward to reading what you thought of it! **


End file.
